GIJoe Novella: Back To Reality
by Tower of Babel
Summary: Storm Shadow & Snake Eyes are targeted by Cobra Commander and inserted into a new version of the Brainwave Scanner. Tricked, they think GIJOE/COBRA is merely software of a VR game. In reality, it's a plan for CC to kill his greatest rival, SE. COMPLETE.
1. Snake Eyes vs Wraith

BACK TO REALITY - CHAPTER 1

* * *

Washington D.C. - The Parliament Building.

Who was this person named Wraith? He had come out of nowhere, and appeared to be Cobra's newest bio-engineered super soldier, leveling the playing field with his vast array of weaponry and arsenal. With his help Cobra forces were gaining the upper hand in this battle with G., lead by the infamous Serpentor back from the dead. Victory for G. looked slim.

But this wasn't the first time it looked dark for G.. They'd managed to pull victories out from even the smallest of margins and this was no different. But things looked a little hopeless with this Wraith character being Cobra's front runner. He appeared to be unstoppable.

Cobra had attacked the Capital Building at precisely 10am EST. Their purpose was to seize the building and hold it. And they were doing just that. Even with thousands of America's best troops battling it out with Cobra troops, they were having limited success at best. G. had arrived to take control of the situation and formed a counter attack, but Wraith held his ground and counter attacked their counterattack, and wouldn't let anyone pass to the building.

Trained, or perhaps programmed, in several different styles of martial arts, not even America's finest had a chance against him. He was an unstoppable killing machine, slaughtering dozens of green shirts and caring nothing about any civilians who got in his way. It wasn't until G. called in a special elite duo that G. finally started to make some progress against Cobra.

And this is where Kamakura and Snake Eyes came in, master and apprentice of the Arashikage Clan, a now almost defunct ninja clan limited to a mere few. Years ago there were many ninjas in G., and a team was formed called Ninja Force, but it disbanded along with G. in the later half of the twentieth century. Now the leader Snake Eyes was back and with a new pupil, and he stood by his master's side in the heat of battle, dropped off by helicopter into the street that lead up to the Capital Building. To someone who just arrived it looked like a battle royal, with Cobra on one side and G. on the other, fighting for total domination over the world. And to a certain extent that was exactly what it was. Cobra wanted to rule the world. And to control America's capital was the perfect place to start. It was a great strategic marker.

Wraith had seen their arrival but was not swayed by their appearance. He smiled underneath his metal mask and activated his stealth technology to approach them unseen. Tiny, microscopic mirrors, embedded into his armor, reflected his surroundings which to the naked eye made him seem invisible. But to one such trained as Snake Eyes, he knew he would senses his presence. And he attacked, drawing his sword towards Snake Eyes, turning off his invisibility. Snake Eyes blocked with his sword. And the two ninja warriors clashed like titans in battle.

Wraith struck hard and fast against Snake Eyes. But Snake Eyes mirrored his every move, almost knowing psychically what Wraith intended to do next. But to a ninja seeing the future was nothing more than knowing his opponent. But as this was Snake Eyes first time fighting Wraith he was doing pretty well against him. And yet there was a pattern to his attack. It looked familiar, as if Wraith had been trained by someone with a working knowledge of the Arashikage. And Snakes Eyes knew who this person was. It could only be his arch-nemesis Storm Shadow, who once was his closest friend and Arashikage Clan blood brother. But he chose a different path than Snake Eyes and joined the forces of Cobra. He had converted to good a few years back but Dr. Mindbender brainwashed him with the Brainwave Scanner and now Storm Shadow was again with the people he hated and despised with a passion, though forced to obey.

Snake Eyes sliced through the air and hit Wraith's shoulder with his sword cutting off a piece of his armor at his upper shoulder. Wraith's arm started to bleed but he didn't relent in his attack and continued to battle Snake Eyes one-on-one, and to the death if need be. It was almost if Wraith had a reason for hating Snake Eyes judged by his fighting technique. But that idea of hate was most likely programmed into his brain to provide focus to kill his enemy.

Not far from them waged another battle, and of a similar sort. Again two ninjas fought, and Storm Shadow and Kamakura were the protagonists. They clashed swords, the clinging of metal together echoed in their ears, even over the massive sounds of the battle roaring around them. And despite Storm Shadow having countless years more experience over his opponent, he couldn't overpower Kamakura, a somatic new breed of half-ninja, which he found displeasing, and his eyes, with the lowered eyebrows and burning hate, showed it.

"You traitorous dog, Storm Shadow," Kamakura spoke out. "How dare you show your face here, leaguing yourself with these monsters again. You're defacing the Arashikage Clan."

"You words are treacherous, young one," the soft spoken ninja, Storm Shadow, said. "The opts of my status are vastly more rewarding than working under a false guise of a malicious government built on lies and deceit, and the blood, sweat and tears of a populace they care nothing about."

"You're wrong," Kamakura said. "You've been brainwashed to believe falsehoods."

"And you are naive to think you're a match for me," Storm Shadow said.

They pushed away from each other and came together again, their swords touching, the clang of metal against metal, but they were equal in strength and skill. And none could get the better of the other. "I see you've been trained by my former blood brother, Snake Eyes. He's finally taken an apprentice under his wing. How ambitious and contentious of him. I had thought to revive the Arashikage Clan years back, to rebuild what my family had taken generations to achieve and destroyed in one horrible night by a silent killer. But it was fools dream ." Storm Shadow pushed in, using his hate and malice against his opponent, forcing Kamakura to take a step back.

"You were good once," Kamakura said.

"And I was foolish!" Storm Shadow said.

* * *

TO BE CONTINUED.


	2. Kamakura vs Storm Shadow

_**BACK TO REALITY - PART 2**_

"I will destroy you," Wraith said to Snake Eyes, as their swords clanged together with swift fluent of motion, as if they were choreographing a battle scent in a movie script. "Your missions are well documented in Cobra archives as is your life history, Cobra Commander has seen to that personally. And you're a legend in martial arts circles -- none have come close to striking you down. You've killed many men. But I intend to make history. I'll be the first to do the impossible. You'll taste your own blood as I plunge my sword through your chest and finally rip that mask off your face to reveal to the world you're not as invincible as you seem."

Snake Eyes pushed in and faced Wraith eye to eye, looking into Wraith's cold, calculating eyes through his mask. And he mouthed something to Wraith which could be seen by the movement of the lower softer portion of Snake Eyes' mask. They were two words.

Wraith snarled with anger because they were two words of utter defiance, the very two words most spoken in the English language that very few people wanted to hear but mostly all have spoken. And no one had ever said that to him before.

* * *

Serpentor joined the fight on the front lines, swimming through the air on his air chariot, adorn in his new battle armour of gold, and fired a volley of weapons fire into a crowd of his enemy. But his aim was so arbitrary that he didn't care who he killed, his enemy or his own men. And yet he was so ruthless he did not care who he struck down.

G.I.Joe forces retaliated, but could not bring him down, missing him as Serpentor flew over them. He was just too fast for them to hit.

"You're so pathetic, G.I.Joe." He shouted down to his enemy. "The might of Serpentor will dawn like a new star despite this insurrection. I have spoken, and this I command! I am the culmination of all your history conquerors, rulers and strategists. I was born with all I need to know to triumph over those that usurp my authority. I am all powerful!"

* * *

"Your emperor is a maniac," Kamakura remarked, as he and Storm Shadow continued to fight it out. They backed off for a moment as both men tired, and breathed in oxygen to regain their strength. "You're foolish to follow an undesirable like Serpentor, he will be your undoing."

"Bite your tongue, hatchling," Storm Shadow said.

"You're a warrior without honour, Storm Shadow," Kamakura said, "and I intend to bring you down for the traitor you are."

Kamakura raised his sword to strike, but all of sudden he heaved in horrible pain as an arrow came swiftly through the air and impacted through his left forearm under his arm pad. He held onto his sword, gripping it as tight as he could as the arrow stuck half way through his arm. His muscles throbbed with pain, but he stayed true to his ninja training and held onto his sword in the midst of it all. And as he was a ninja kept at a battle ready stance despite the pain.

Storm Shadow looked around to see who had fired the arrow and saw Firefly, dressed in his grey camouflage attire a top a H.I.S.S. tank in the gunner turret a few yards away, with a black metal bow in his hand. He looked at the ninja with detest, as he lowered his weapon.

"You've grown weak, Storm Shadow," he said, in a gruff sounding tone, a sinister sound of voice. "Allowing an apprentice of such weak breeding to match wits with one such as yourself. And you call yourself a master. Pathetic. I wouldn't hesitate to cut his throat. Now finish him. Don't hesitate. Take your sword and strike him down now."

"I will not be told what you do by the likes of you, Firefly," Storm Shadow said in response. "You betrayed the members of the Arashikage Clan by murdering my uncle and slaughtering its warriors."

Firefly jumped down from the gunner turret. "Even your memory is at fault," he said, walking towards them. Snake Eyes and Wraith had taken their fight elsewhere, and were no where near the trio. "It was not I who murdered your beloved uncle, it was Zartan, the changeling. I was hired to conduct a killing by Cobra Commander, to kill Snake Eyes, an outsider, who you brought into our clan because you felt sorry for him. But I was not the one who made the kill; I was not the one who killed the Silent Master. But you know the truth and still fight for Cobra. You are weak-minded, and so is this pathetic weakling."

"I am not weak," Kamakura voiced angry, allowing his emotions to get the better of him, and lashed out with his sword at Firefly. But Firefly feared nothing from him, and clasped Kamakura's sword between his palms in an ancient Arashikage technique that was only taught to the masters of the Arashikage Clan.

After stopping Kamakura's attack, he brought his right arm up and elbowed Kamakura in the face, and used the moment to snatch Kamakura's sword away from him. "Impressive craftsmanship," he said, glancing at the sword. "And each ninja's sword is unique. It's a part of their training to craft such a weapon to be used by only the one that wields it. You may be a ninja, but you are far from being a master of your art. Prove your skill against me. Let's see how far you have progressed with Snake Eyes training you."

"No!" Storm Shadow protested. "He is my opponent."

"Not any more."

* * *

**TO BE CONTINUED.**


	3. Firefly Joins The Battle

****

BACK TO REALITY - PART 3

Kamakura had lost focus when Firefly arrived and suffered for it.

He felt the taste of blood in his mouth from Firefly's elbow to his face, but recovered quickly, and sneered at him from behind his mask.

Firefly laughed at Kamakura as if amused.

"I accept your challenge, Firefly," he said without hesitation, facing him. "But return my sword. If you're an honorable warrior you'll grant me the right to my property." He extend a hand.

Firefly looked at Kamakura's hand and was so tempted to slice it off. Heck, his entire arm would be more prudent. But that would be too easy.

Firefly extended the sword and brought the tip under Kamakura's chin. "You think me a fool. You're an arrogant one for the status granted to you. Pity Snake Eyes didn't teach you the proper respect for one greater than yourself. I would've enjoyed sparing with you, but your defeat would've been swift. A ninja must be cold and calculating, and you're neither. You must learn a lot more before you and I can battle."

"Give me back my sword and I will show you how skilful I am," Kamakura said. "I'm not afraid to die. Kill me now if you fear to fight me, but don't judge me by the easiness of your own cowardliness, in shooting an arrow through my arm whist true warriors were fighting."

"You test my resolve, Kamakura," Firefly said, inching the sword inward slightly puncturing a hole in Kamakura's black mask, touching his skin, a drop of blood oozing out from the opening. "But I'm a patient man. Yours will be a death more swift than I can provide."

Storm Shadow looked about him and heard a strange whistle, wondering where it was coming from. Despite all the fighting going on his hearing was excellent. But he had heard this sound more often than he liked--it was a familiar sound and one he was terrified of. He looked up and his eyes widened with fear. "INCOMING!" he shouted.

Firefly turned to see what was incoming, and in that moment Storm Shadow lunged towards Kamakura and smothered him on the ground as the tank Firefly arrived in erupted in a huge explosion, as a missile dropped on it from a G.I.Joe aircraft. The explosion was so powerful and the impact so great that the air pressure of such a blast threw Firefly backwards with tremendous force through a glass window of a nearby restaurant.

When he thought it was save Storm Shadow looked up from his position and quickly rolled off Kamakura re-establishing his dominance over the young ninja. But in all the commotion his had lost his sword. He looked around for it that his uncle had given to him on his sixteenth birthday and suddenly found it in the hands of Kamakura. Kamakura stood up.

"Lost something, Storm Shadow?" Kamakura gripped Storm Shadow's sword with a master's touch, pointing it at him. "Such an ancient sword, it looks used but still keeps its luster. It must be worth a great deal to you. This is yours I believe. You should have it as its true owner."

Storm Shadow hesitated. It wasn't common for an enemy to return a weapon back to the one who had lost it. But he believed Kamakura's intention was sincere and sensed no deception from the ninja and slowly reached for the sword, gripping the blade. Bad mistake.

Kamakura quickly pulled back on the sword and sliced a large gash on the inside of Storm Shadow's hand. Storm Shadow hissed in pain, closing his hand into a claw. He looked at his hand, then looked back at Kamakura. "You've learned the art of deception well," Storm Shadow said, droplets of blood fell to the ground at his feet. "Pity you're not working for Cobra. I could train you in the proper way of the ninja, the way of a true Arashikage ninja, a way that your master does not know."

"He knows enough, and so do I," Kamakura spoke back. And he rose the sword above his head and angled it at a 90 degree angle. "For all the suffering you've caused my master I should kill you right here." There was a pause. "But I won't." He lowered the sword. "Instead, your life will be spent in dishonor knowing a life of eternal misery."

"Funny, since my uncle was killed that's all my life as become," Storm Shadow said. "But I do not need you to remind me of such things." Then he smirked. "You have promise, young one."

"Stop calling me young one!" Kamakura said with anger.

"But you are," Storm Shadow continued. "And I'll prove it!"

Storm Shadow swept Kamakura off his feet with a leg sweep and reclaimed his sword, then lowered it and settled it underneath Kamakura's chin.

"Are you going to finish what Firefly started?" Kamakura questioned, looking up the blade of Storm Shadow's sword.

Storm Shadow did not answer right away. "No, I have my sword back," he said, then stepped back and sheathed it. Kamakura looked at his enemy confused. "Your death will not come by my hands, but by another."

What did he mean by that? Kamakura wondered.

"Firefly's a cold blooded killer and he would have killed you without hesitation and I'm unconcern why he didn't. But apparently fate has other plans for you. Firefly is not dead. He and I have a connection that is thicker than blood. I can sense his suffering like a brother can his sibling's. He will return." Storm Shadow allowed Kamakura to stand. "But there is more to being a ninja than skill and sacrifice, Kamakura. Learn by your master. There is so much more you must learn. Now go to Snake Eyes, he needs you. Wraith is a formidable warrior and a man not to be taken lightly." Storm Shadow picked up Kamakura's sword and tossed it to him. Kamakura caught it. Kamakura immediately gripped the handle, but he did not poise for an attack. "Take this, and use it." Storm Shadow finally said.

Storm Shadow then ran into a dark alleyway and disappeared.

Kamakura took the handle of his sword and gripped it tight, looking at it with grave appreciation. The spirit of his grandfather was in this sword. He was a blacksmith. And like Snake Eyes he was a very wise man. His grandfather once told him that as long as he had this sword nothing bad would happen to him and so far that prophecy had come true. This sword was the last thing his grandfather made before he died and Kamakura believed woven in its steel was a protection greater than anything humanity could create.

But there was also Storm Shadow's humanity to thank. Storm Shadow had not totally turned to the dark side. There was still some good left in him, he could sense it and felt it as Storm Shadow touched his chin with his sword. His sword resonated with the spirit exchange that only commenced between ninja, and for a brief moment he could feel Storm Shadow's true nature. Storm Shadow was confused, he was not evil. But until he realized it he would never be free of his inner demons.

"You will be free one day, Storm Shadow," Kamakura said. "I know it."

Looking at his arm he saw the arrow Firefly fired into it. He prepared himself for the pain and with one strong yank he pulled it out. A gush of blood followed it. The pain was excoriating, but he managed.

Ripping a piece of cloth from his clothes he wrapped it tight around the wound, to stop the blood, and tied it off by using his teeth.

Once the bandage was on, he went to help his master.

* * *

**TO BE CONTINUED**


	4. Cobra Commander Looks On

**_BACK TO REALITY - PART 4_**

On the roof of one of the Parliament House apartments on Arlington Road overlooking the Parliament Building park and complex, Cobra Commander stood peering through a pair of binoculars at the conflict between G.I.Joe and Cobra.

He smiled amused behind his metallic mask and chuckled at the foolishness of Serpentor's plight. But it wasn't the conflict he found amusing and it was not that that captured his interest. His attention was on two individuals, two men of equal skill and might, and of equal determination to win against the other.

And to him this personal one-on-one was much more fascinating than anything else playing out on the battlefield. He couldn't be bothered with Serpentor and his usurp of the American capital. He'd done it before and failed miserably, and he'll fail again - it was almost certain. G.I.Joe will never let him keep it!

Cobra Commander had his own purpose for being here and it had nothing to do with toppling the government or occupying the city by futile means, though it did present a very exciting prospect. But he was a man who knew his limits, Serpentor didn't. True power lay with the man and not what he held as collateral. This was not ancient times. He was a man of the 21st century. The problem with Serpentor was he was the culmination of several different rules with varying ideals of conquest and neither one of them had the logic to realize times have changed. The world can't be conquered anymore and it's not run my governments. Corporations were the world's new conglomerate. If Serpentor seized power, a different branch of the government would take over, supersede, and incapacitate the branch held by his hostile force. So no matter what Serpentor did he already lost this battle, he just didn't know it yet.

Cobra was no longer his, it was taken by him by his inner sanctum, hijacked if you will, by people he trusted in his organization. And Dr. Mindbender was the ring leader, forming a splinter cell called The Coil. Serpentor was the only one left of this cell, the rest Cobra Commander killed or they escaped.

He took care of the good doctor in the most satisfying means he saw fit. Dr. Mindbender now hung dead on a meat hook in some meat package plant ready to be chopped up by machines and distributed in small packages marked "Fresh Meat" in countless super markets all around the world. And this time, he wasn't coming back, as a clone or anything else. He made sure all the doctor's DNA specimens and clone chambers were destroyed so it would be assured there would be no more Dr. Mindbender's.

Soon he would have his leadership back, and Serpentor would be dead for good. Again Zartan failed to kill a man he paid to be murdered. Serpentor survived his brush with death after being shot in the face with an arrow. The body in the train freight for which he sealed away all those who betrayed him during Cobra's first insurrection and up-rise in leadership was not Serpentor but a body made up to look like him. Funny how Firefly never mentioned this when he mangled the body to disguise it as if it were him so he could escape from the freighter undetected.

But all that was water under the bridge. But of course nothing was ever forgotten, it was just put aside temporarily while other things were going on.

But now it was time to restore his thrown. He had a plan to get his organization back and it included an old nemesis, the man essentially known as Snake Eyes.

For many years Snake Eyes has been his mortal enemy, if that's the colloquial term nowadays, the last remaining of his family who killed an innocent man on his way home from his job in Springfield, U.S.A, Cobra Commander's brother Dan.

Now it was time for revenge. To finally destroy Snake Eyes for what his family did all those years ago. If there ever was a man who deserved the wraith of the gods, Snake Eyes was that man! And this time he found a surefire way to kill the man.

He tried before but failed. He hired a freelance assassin, an ex-marine kicked out of the military for elicit behavior, calling himself Firefly, he never did find out why, to kill Snake Eyes, who was residing with a family of ninja's the Arashikage Clan in the mountains of Japan. He infiltrated the clan and presented himself as a prominent member and was referred to as the Silent Master, for his consistent quietness but fast reflexes.

It was later on that Firefly said he could not kill Snake Eyes for whatever reason, so he recommended another assassin, Zartan, a trained marksman from the Florida Everglades. But there was a fowl up and Zartan killed the wrong man, Storm Shadow's uncle, the Hard Master, believing he to be Snake Eyes when he was showing Snake Eyes a secret ancient technique to disguise his shadow and change it to any shape he wished. The Hard Master chose to mimic Snake Eyes and Zartan thinking he was Snake Eyes fired an arrow at the shadow piercing his heart, killing the old man.

It was the last time he could get close to Snake Eyes. After that the Arashikage Clan disbanded and the man who later took on the name Snake Eyes went into hiding, later turning up as a member of America's Elite, G.I.Joe, when Cobra rose to power.

But now he had an opportunity to kill Snake Eyes, and this time his plan wouldn't fail. It was fool proof. While fools rush in, he'd been formulating and instrumentally putting his plan together leaving nothing to chance. The orchestra was set, the curtains drawn, and now it was time for Snake Eyes to take his final bow into oblivion.

It was time to take matters into his own hands. He waited far too long for this to happen. If the courts denied him justice, then he would become the court and way sentence on Snake Eyes with his own brand of justice, becoming judge, jury and executor.

Behind him, the door to gain access to the roof creaked open and he heard a man's footsteps as they walked over gravel. "I would have thought a ninja made less noise than that if he wanted to sneak up on a person, Firefly," he said.

"It wasn't my intention to sneak up on you, Commander," he said. "But if I wanted to do so you wouldn't know that I was here."

"Ah, the over-confidence of a ninja," Cobra Commander said, still peering through his binoculars. "You are part of a dying breed, my friend, soon to be made extinct. The ninja are no longer needed with high-tech weaponry and satellite surveillance equipment. Nine tenths of the earth's surface is monitored 24/7. There's nothing you can do that someone won't be able to see. Face the facts."

"The ninja will never be extinct, Commander," Firefly replied. "We're faster, skilled, and more stealth, than any high-tech gadgetry that can ever be conceived. We've existed before humanity ever had the need for high-tech toys."

"Then why do you like then so much? Why don't you simply relay on your ninja skills like Storm Shadow or Slice or the Red Shadows?"

"Because you're correct in a sense, Commander. Much like the world has evolved, so much do the creatures that inhabit her."

Cobra Commander gave a slight chuckle. "You're so much more than a ninja, Firefly. You're more like me. It's the excitement of the hunt that drives us on. All these high-tech gadgets are merely tools to allow us to capture our prey more easily."

"Though something can be said about doing it the old fashion way."

"True, very true. But I've grown accustomed to using these tools. And with them I've done more than I could ever do without them."

"As have I."

"So, I see our little rouse convinced Kamakura and Storm Shadow. I never did trust him. And we need to watch him very closely."

"I've always had my eye on him," Firefly said. "Ever since you sent me to infiltrate the Arashikage Clan there has been something about him that I don't like."

"That he's better at ninjistu than you are?"

"Tommy Arashikage is nothing, and he knows it."

"My dear Firefly, do I hear a hint of jealousy in your voice?"

"I am not jealous of Storm Shadow," he said bluntly.

"I fear he does protest to much."

Firefly didn't respond to that. "Your people were a little slow in pulling the rope back to yank me threw that window. And the missile was too close for comfort." He said.

"I told Wild Weasel to make the attack convincing for both sides," Cobra Commander said.

"Where did you get a G.I.Joe Conquest to attack with?"

"We stole it from an irresponsible pilot who left it unattended at G.I.Joe headquarters just before Serpentor started his attack on Washington. I find attacking with an enemy aircraft against one of our own quite convincing, don't you think?"

"But what is the point? If you want Snake Eyes dead, why don't you just kill him? Why go through this charade to convince Kamakura Storm Shadow is his ally? It's a waste of time."

Cobra Commander quickly turned to him. "Because I don't just want to kill him, I want Snake Eyes to suffer like I suffered when my brother died at the hands of his family on that dusk filled night as he was driving home from work. He was killed instantly when Snake Eyes family smashed their car head-on into his. And Storm Shadow's relationship with Snake Eyes will help me in my goal."

"Snake Eyes lost his family too, his entire family," Firefly said.

"Are you questioning my motives?"

"No sir, I'm stating a fact. If you look at Snake Eyes dossier, his life has been wracked with tragedy and mishap. I'm guessing that's why he chose the name Snake Eyes. In the game Craps that's the worse hand you can get, and in doing so, you lose everything."

"As a result of the crash I also lost everything. My wife left me, my son rejected me - he even tried to assassinate me. I want Snake Eyes dead for what he did to me. But just to kill him won't do it, I'm going to destroy his mind bit by bit."

He turned back around and focused in on the one-one-one duel between Snake Eyes and Destro's assassin Wraith.

"I don't want him killed by Wraith," he said. "Tell Slice to interfere. Kamakura is on his way to his master. I want this to be a fair duel, but tell him not to go for the kill. I know how he likes to flip off the handle sometimes. The ninja mentality irritates me. You people think you know everything there is about the art of fighting. It's more than ninja hocus pocus tricks. I was a soldier once."

"And yet I've never seen you fight, Commander," Firefly said back.

Cobra Commander lowered the binoculars and then turned very slowly towards Firefly. He didn't like that one bit. He snarled beneath his metallic mask and his eyes shown through a glass shield expressed how angry he was by that remark. But he replied in a calm and collected manner. He'd learned not to yell at responses like that. Being calm created more of a scare.

"I'm a thinker, Firefly, a leader of men. I don't have to fight. My minions carry out my orders in the glory of their leader, me. It prevents me from getting my hands dirty. But if you want a demonstration, Firefly, I'd be more than happy to oblige."

_With that metallic suit on you'll kill me. "_No Commander," he said quickly. "I apologize. I didn't mean to question your combat abilities. Your prowess as a warrior is unquestionable." _But without that suit on you're nothing._ He actually thought.

"No Commander," he said quickly. "I apologize. I didn't mean to question your combat abilities. Your prowess as a warrior is unquestionable." He actually thought. 

He knew Firefly was just telling him what he wanted to hear, but he let his comment slip this time and returned to his observation of Snake Eyes and Wraith. Kamakura had now joined the fight and Wraith had his hands full. "Get Slice now, tell him Wraith needs help, but also tell him if he gets the chance kill'em!"

Firefly smirked behind his mask. "Yes Commander, I'll tell him." And Firefly exited the same way he entered.

"Your death will be mine to savior, Snake Eyes, and I will not be denied by any other, even if it means helping you defend against your enemy."

* * *

To Be Continued.


	5. Major Bludd's Ineptness

**_Back To Reality - Part V_**

It was a war zone outside. But for the people inside the Parliament Building--they were just hoping to live through this.

Cobra had nearly a hundred hostages and had killed two of them to prove that their intentions were sincere. Their lifeless corpuses were dragged and lay in the centre of the room as a message to the hostages that no heroics will be tolerated. Serpentor wanted the total surrender of America's Elite, G.I.Joe, or he would start killing more. But so far, judging by the news being broadcast on satellite TV piped into the council chambers, G.I.Joe was absolutely not giving into his demands.

Inside, people were huddled together in the large auditorium, and were surrounded by armed Cobra troops, with very itchy trigger fingers.

Major Bludd sat on a chair with his legs up on another chair filing the nails of his left hand. He was given orders to organize the chambers and if anyone attempted to rebel to shoot them, but he was very bored. He felt like shooting one of the hostages just to have something to do. But he enjoyed the hunt, and these people wouldn't give him any sport.

"Major!" one of the troops said, saluting. Major Bludd didn't even give him a look and continue to file his nails. "The hostages are secured. Serpentor reports heavy resistance outside."

"Thank you, Lt., that'll be all," he said.

"Yes sir," the troop said, and left.

Storm Shadow then entered through a back entrance and had a look around. He wasn't concerned about the hostages, but disgusted by the two people who lay dead on the floor. "What are those still doing here?" he said, pointing at the dead bodies. "If you're bored, Major Bludd, have some of your men take them away. They're starting to smell."

"I'm not an undertaker," Maj. Bludd said, continuing to file his nails.

Storm Shadow looked at him with an angry stare. He then unsheathed his sword and placed the blade in front of Maj. Bludd's throat. Maj. Bludd froze. He then turned his head slowly towards Storm Shadow. "Would you like me to cut off your other hand, Major?" he said to him.

"A sudden career change might be order," he said. Storm Shadow withdrew his sword and sheathed it. Maj. Bludd got up from the chair and said, "You and you and you, remove these bodies and put them in the back room." He then turned to Storm Shadow. "Is that better?"

"Your attitude is unbecoming of a man of your rank, Maj. Bludd," he said to him. "One day you'll humble before one who is stronger than you and quickly learn a painful lesson. What's the situation here?" he asked.

"The building is secure," Maj. Bludd reported.

"Good," Storm Shadow said. "Carry on."

And then Storm Shadow left the same way he came in.

Maj. Bludd watched him leave and felt a certain uneasiness when it came to Storm Shadow. He had been brainwashed so many times by the Brain Wave Scanner that it was no wonder his mind wasn't turned to mush. But being a ninja he had a discipline unlike any other he knew. But Maj. Bludd didn't trust him. A man with his history was bad news. And a ninja like him was bad luck to have around in a delicate operation like this. You never knew which side he was really on.

To Be Continued.

Short on purpose.


	6. Welcome Slice Into The Fold

**__**

Back To Reality Part 6

"Are you ready to die yet ninja?" Wraith said to Snake Eyes.

Their swords clashed and clanged with ferocious intensity and neither one was about to relent. In wasn't until Kamakura joined his master that things started to get a little rough for Wraith. But he handled it.

"How pathetic you need your apprentice to fight this battle with you," he said. "I suppose it might be the only way you can will this fight, huh? But I don't think so. I have never been defeated!"

"There is always a first time for everything," Kamakura said, and struck high as Snake Eyes struck low. But Wraith was now sporting two swords and he blocked their attempts to strike him down with ease.

Back and forth the ninja fought, but not even a two-on-one situation phased Wraith.

All of a sudden, a sword flew through the air and it sliced open Kamakura's uniform as it embedded itself into the concentrate between the fighting warriors. Kamakura felt his chest, but thankfully the sword had not cut his skin.

The three fighters looked at the new participate to the battle. "May I join in? Or is this a private party?" Slice, in his blood red uniform, and metal mesh mask, said. "You seem to be having fun."

Snake Eyes snapped his fingers and thumbed Kamakura telling him to take care of him, he then attacked Wraith and continued the fight, forcing the Cobra bio-warrior back as Snake Eyes put on a relentless barrage.

Slice jumped down from a metal railing balcony to the ground and chuckled as he looked at Kamakura. "What's so funny?" Kamakura asked.

"You," Slice said. "You and your master seem inseparable, but it's time to leave the womb, little man. Time to fight with the big boys. Time to show me what you really got!" Slice unsheathed another sword.

Kamakura readied his, and attacked.

Slice blocked the attack with his sword. But Slice played dirty from the get-go and head-butt Kamakura in the face. And with his metal mesh mask the impact against skull made Kamakura reside his defenses for an opening. Slice punched the ninja in the stomach and then twirled around, elbowing Kamakura in the head. Kamakura staggered back, but the attacks didn't stop from Slice. Slice was determined to bring him down.

Slice sliced through the air with his sword and eventually pushed Kamakura back enough so he could grab his other sword. He plucked it out from the concrete and attacked Kamakura with both, swinging and twirling, like some sort of mad man ballerina with nothing to lose.

It took all Kamakura's know how just to dodge, weave and block his attacks, and no matter what, he left no opening for a counter offensive. It was like he knew all of Kamakura's moves and did everything he could not to allow him to use any of them.

Slice was a true master of the arts, Kamakura had to give him credit for that, but there was also something about having heart when it came to fighting and using your skills in conjunction to defeat your enemy. Slice, on the other hand, was fighting to win, and his movements were tight, but after a while, Kamakura noticed a pattern emerge.

Slice used moves in relation to his where his enemy was, but not where he was positioned, which was a mistake. A well endowed ninja must be verse in all his surroundings and not just his enemy's. And with every second attack, which was a repeat pattern, Kamakura saw the smallest of openings in his defenses. And this is where Kamakura attacked.

Kamakura lunged his sword through an opening between Slice's forearm and his sword and caught the ninja off guard. But as Slice was fixed into a pattern of attack, it took him a few moments to realize his defenses had been compromised. But by that time it was too late, and Kamakura used the butt of his sword to strike Slice upwards in the chin.

Slice staggered back feeling his chin, he adjusted it as if it was broken. "Nice move," he said. "You managed to bore through the smallest hole in my defenses. But luck doesn't make a ninja, and you got lucky."

"Luck had nothing to do with it, Slice, you're just sloppy!" Kamakura said back.

"No one insults my skill," Slice said, and attacked Kamakura with an over the head slice with his sword, but Kamakura easily shifted his weight to the right avoiding the attack, and then counterattacked by driving his sword directly at Slice's stomach.

But at the last moment, Kamakura's sword was deflected by a throwing star that hit the blade and forced it to shift left. Kamakura looked for the culprit who threw it, but couldn't see anything.

Then he saw the fleeting shadow of someone in flight off the roof tops of the buildings and had an idea it could only be Storm Shadow. Every ninja has own brand of throwing star, and when Kamakura looked down at the one that missed him and deflected his sword, it had the mark of Storm Shadow.

But if Storm Shadow wanted to kill him, why only deflect his sword?

Slice regained his composure and attacked Kamakura with everything he had, but as Kamakura knew his tactics he knew where to penetrate his defenses and bring him down. After blocking a two sword attack, Kamakura quickly dropped his sword and grabbed both of Slice's wrists. He then separated his swords from an X pattern and twisted them outward and under to a point of almost breaking his wrists.

Slice screamed in pain and let go of his swords. With Slice disarmed, Kamakura went to work on him and head butt Slice in the metal mesh. The impact was so intense that the metal mesh bent inwards. Kamakura was so pumped with adrenaline that he was unhurt. He then took a few steps back and delivered a devastating roundhouse kick to the ninja's head.

Slice's helmet cracked as he fell to the ground. Kamakura positioned himself for a retaliatory strike from Slice, but as the seconds passed it never came. He had apparently knocked the ninja out cold.

Kamakura picked up his sword and went to rejoin his master.

-

"What an idiot!" Cobra Commander said as he watched Kamakura run off leaving Slice unconscious on the ground after defeating him. "But it's left Firefly the time he needed to get ready." He picked up a walkie talkie. "Firefly, they're coming your way. Be ready." He received a confirmation from Firefly, and then said, "Snake Eyes, you're mine!"

-

Firefly heard Cobra Commander say, "They're coming to you, they're approaching the alley. Strike Wraith down, and capture Snake Eyes."

"No problem," Firefly said, ending communication. He put the walkie talkie into a pouch on his chest and prepared for the duo to come to him, as he waited patiently in the shadowy mouth of an alley.

And as they clashed their swords together, like two titans fighting a war where the fate of the world resided, overseen by gods, Firefly wanted so badly to take out his laser and to kill Snake Eyes. But he was hired to do a job, and the payoff for this venture was a tidy some. So he waited until they got close enough and fired on Wraith when they got within range. But to Firefly's surprise, Wraith's armor deflected his bullets. They ricochet off his gleaming armor and out into nowhere.

Firefly growled angry. But he was resourceful and threw out several grenades at the fighting pair. This was power, his power. None of this ninja crap, good old fashion technology and bombs.

The pair separated and then looked at their attacker.

"What are you doing, Firefly?" Wraith said. "We're supposed to be on the same side here."

"I have a different employer and he wants him, and I plan to deliver," Firefly said, and with a quick hand, planted a magnetic change onto Wraith metallic breast plate. The charge went off and the explosion launched Wraith several meters back into the street, where he was run over by a passing car. But with all that armor on him, there was no way he would be killed by being run over by a car. Wraith got up slowly. "It's just you and me now, Snake Eyes," he said. "Time to finish what I started many years back at the Arashikage Clan's martial arts training compound. I was hired to kill you, but that task instead fell to Zartan. But he blundered it up and killed the Hard Master, Storm Shadow's uncle, whereas you should have died. I'm under orders not to kill you, but all the money in the world isn't worth not killing you myself."

Suddenly Kamakura showed up and now there was another two-on-one situation, but Firefly appeared unafraid. Kamakura raised his sword to him. "You have a knack for coming at the worse time, Kamakura," he said. "But I doubt you'll want to kill me."

"And why is that? The world would be better off without you," he said.

"Because if you move, your master dies!" And Firefly revealed a trigger mechanism in his right hand with a button switch on its head. He pointed to Snake Eyes chest, and on it was a magnetic explosive device. It was a smaller version of same one he planted on Wraith. "When I planted a similar one on Wraith moments ago, I also tossed one on Snake Eyes. It's my ace in the hole. If you move, Snake Eyes, I'll blow you to kingdom come!" Snake Eyes waved Kamakura off. Kamakura lowered his sword. "Very good. It looks like you taught your apprentice discipline. Too bad he's too stupid to realize you're nothing but a scared man behind a mask."

"We all wear masks, gentlemen…" Cobra Commander said, as he stepped out from the shadowy alley. He had come down from the rooftops and exited a side passage door. He now joined them. "It's only who you appear to others that makes you a monster. And we are all monsters."

"Speak for yourself," Kamakura said. "You're the worse monster of all!"

Snake Eyes put a hand up and Kamakura quieted down, though he could still see an overwhelming anger bleeding from his eyes. He was angry too, but to sacrifice oneself for a futile cause was worthless.

"What do you want, Snake breath?" Kamakura finally said.

"Isn't it obvious? I want him." He pointed at Snake Eyes. "It's been so long since we've faced each other face-to-face Snake Eyes. So many years have passed since our loved ones died in that horrible car accident. And your family is to blame. My brother was a kind man who only wanted to provide a happy home for his family, but when he died all our dreams were shattered. Time to pay up for wrongful sins."

And Cobra Commander pulled out a laser and shot Snake Eyes in the face. The blast jerked Snake Eyes head back and he collapsed to the ground.

"You bastard!" Kamakura said, and gripped his sword to attack, but Firefly showed him the trigger and Kamakura stopped.

"Don't fret, Kamakura, I haven't killed him," Cobra Commander said. "Only stunned him. I have something more sinister in mind for him."

Suddenly Kamakura had the look of a deer in the headlights and his hands fell to his side. He dropped his sword and fell unconscious beside Snake Eyes. Slice stood behind him. He gripped his sword in his right hand and had hit Kamakura in the back of the head with the butt.

"Glad that you could join us, Slice," Cobra Commander said. "Now pick them up and bring them to the car."

Slice picked up Kamakura and Firefly picked up Snake Eyes and took them to an underground parking garage where they put them in the back seat of a black Sedan. Slice got into the back with them to watch them. Firefly hoped into the passenger side while Cobra Commander got into the drivers side. He started up the car and then streaked up and into the street.

"What about the battle against G.I.Joe, Commander?" Slice said.

"Firefly, would you do the honors?" Cobra Commander said.

"My pleasure," Firefly said, and opened the glove compartment and took out a remote detonator box with lots of switches.

"You see, I don't much care for Serpentor's war, but I will not allow anyone else to rule the world. I've worked too hard for someone to swoop in and take all the credit for my hard work over the years, and if that means sabotaging Serpentor's plans, and giving G.I.Joe the victory…"

Suddenly there was a series of loud explosives coming from the battlefield, and Slice looked back through the tinted windshield of the car to see Cobra's army self-destructing. Tanks exploded, Cobra air-craft dive-bombed into the ground, and Serpentor's air chariot exploded. Serpentor dropped like a stone to the ground.

And quickly the tables turned on Cobra as G.I.Joe overran their defenses with no artillery or anti-craft to defend their lines. Battle Android Troopers turned on Cobra troops and started firing on them.

It wasn't long before the Parliament Building was overrun by coalition forces and the hostages rescued.

Slice looked back at Cobra Commander as he drove the car, and swallowed hard. And thought a man who would kill his own men was a very dangerous man to know.

****

-- TBC


	7. Snake Eyes & Kamakura Captured

**__**

Back To Reality Part 7

As the black Sedan pulled out of the underground parking lot and then screeched down an abandoned street safe from the battle happening near the Parliament Building, a lone warrior stood watching its departure.

A series of explosions rocked the battlefield as it departed and destroyed Cobra's line of defense against G.I.Joe. The man knew this battle had no purpose and Serpentor was foolish to undertake it. This was Karma, but it was difficult to see Cobra Commander as Buddha.

He was angry. Because he knew who the occupants were in the car and who they had as unwilling passengers. So he followed them, jumping across rooftops. But when he could no longer follow them on the rooftops, he jumped down from a two-story building to the street below and climbed onto some poor man's motorcycle as he made a call on a pay phone.

"Hey!" the man shouted, but the man ignored him as he put on a helmet. The owner of the motorcycle grabbed the thief's arm in an attempt to stop him, but it was bad mistake. The thief grabbed the other man's wrist and twisted it. The man screamed in agony, and the thief pushed him away. The man grabbed his wrist and watched in horror as his bike was stolen by what looked like a man wearing a white ninja outfit.

Storm Shadow pulled out into traffic and raced after the black Sedan, but he stayed a safe distance from the vehicle so not give his position away. He didn't know what Cobra Commander had planned for Snake Eyes and Kamakura. But he wanted to know.

He was hired to distract Kamakura while Wraith fought Snake Eyes. But now it appeared Cobra Commander had his own agenda. And after seeing the carnage that took place outside the Parliament Building, it was clear to see that he was duped and had been used as a pawn for undue gains.

Inside the vehicle, Snake Eyes' head leaned against a thin plate of bullet proof glass. He knew this because he was awake and he could see a tiny sticker and the initials ARBCO in the bottom corner through his visor. He also saw a curious tagger via the side view mirror.

Several cars behind them Storm Shadow followed on a motorcycle. Why he was following them he didn't know, but it must have something to do of him and Kamakura being in this car and Cobra Commander at the helm. He didn't want to give himself away and moved his head slowly.

He saw Kamakura laying unconscious beside him and Slice sitting beside him. Then there was Cobra Commander in the driver's seat and Firefly was in the passengers side.

He didn't know what Cobra Commander had shot him with, but it must have been some sort of stun or paralyzing weapon because his entire body felt numb. But he managed to twitch his fingers beside his right legs which was closest to the door, so the agent wasn't permanent or habitual.

And he was thankful he wasn't dead, which was his final thought before Cobra Commander shot him in the face with the weapon. But the question rose, why didn't Cobra Commander kill him?

Slice turned his head and noticed Snake Eyes' head was turned towards him. He looked further and wondered if perhaps his head had just moved from the movement of the car, but then he sensed something, something only a ninja would, and knew Snake Eyes was awake.

But before he could say anything, Snake Eyes lunged at him and punched him in the mask. The back of his head hit the glass with such impact that it made a crack. Then Snake Eyes unlatched the door and opened it, pushing Slice out. Slice fell out of the car and rolled behind the car.

Cobra Commander turned briefly to see Snake Eyes was free. "Get'em, you idiot!" Cobra Commander ordered, and Firefly pulled out a gun and reached over the back seat. But Snake Eyes grabbed the gun as it came within reach and both men struggled for control over it.

The car swerved through traffic as Cobra Commander attempted to keep control of it as he was constantly bumped by the fighting. But he was only lucky so many times as a sudden bump caused him to turn the wheel hard to the left and the car hit a curb and flipped. It rolled several times, its body crunching as it went, and then came to rest on its roof.

No one moved for what felt like minute and then Snake Eyes twitched his fingers and found the car upside down and him laying on his back with Kamakura still unconscious on his stomach.

The door he pushed Slice out of had been ripped off its hinges as the car flipped and Snake Eyes reached for some leverage from the side of the door frame to pull himself out of the car. He stood up and felt his head, he then saw where the car had landed. It was upside down on the shoulder of a busy highway. Traffic had slowed due to the accident.

He looked back into the car and saw the rest of the occupants unconscious. Cobra Commander was latched in with a seatbelt and Firefly was laying flat wedged in between the roof and the passenger seat.

Snake Eyes grabbed Kamakura by his uniform and pulled him out of the car. He then checked his pulse and hoped his apprentice hadn't broken anything in the accident. He draped Kamakura over his shoulder and went through a hole in the stone encampment that followed the length of the highway that was made by the car smashing into it.

Storm Shadow screeched the motorcycle to a halt when he saw the horrific scene on the shoulder of the highway. Several cars were in front of him, but he could see the accident from where he was. He got off the bike and then ran between the cars to the scene.

Storm Shadow looked in the car and saw Cobra Commander and Firefly unconscious, but Snake Eyes and Kamakura were no where to be seen.

Suddenly he smelled smoke and a fire erupted near the back axel, and gas was leaking from the car. It would be easier to allow Cobra Commander and Firefly to die in a car fire, the world could do without them, but he was a better man than that to allow two men to burn to death. So, instead of going after Snake Eyes, he pulled Cobra Commander and Firefly out of the car and to safety. Seconds later, the car exploded!

Firefly moaned. The sound of the car had awakened him. He looked at the car and then at Storm Shadow. "Good riddens to bad rubbish," he said.

"Snake Eyes and Kamakura were not in that car," Storm Shadow said.

Firefly got to his feet. Cobra Commander began to regain consciousness. "They weren't? Then where the hell are they?"

"They appeared to have escaped."

Firefly looked at Cobra Commander. Cobra Commander rubbed the back of his neck and looked at him. He nodded to Firefly and Firefly punched Storm Shadow in the face. "You fool! You let them get away!" He took out the trigger to the explosive device he had planted on Snake Eyes' armor and placed his thumb over the push-button head. "Doesn't matter, he's dead now."

Storm Shadow feeling the sting of the hit turned to him. He then unsheathe his sword and placed it within a quarter of an inch from Firefly's nose. "That would be very unwise, Firefly," he said, and Firefly had a fearful look in his eyes as he looked across the steel blade of Storm Shadow's sword so close to his face. Storm Shadow then plucked the explosive device Firefly thought was on Snake Eyes armor off his grenade belt. "If you had used that trigger, you would had died."

Storm Shadow took a step back and tossed Firefly the explosive device. Firefly caught it. "That sneaky bastard," he said with an almost admiration for the man. "He must've put it on me when I was in the car."

Cobra Commander growled angry. "You idiots made me loose him," he said. "And I had such plans for Snake Eyes this time."

"Not to worry, Commander," Firefly said. "I always have a back-up plan." He took out a mobile tracking device from a pouch in his belt across his chest, it was the size of a palm pilot. He activated it and it displayed a map of the city and a red blip where Snake Eyes position was. "He's not far from here, half a click that way. I planted a tracking device on him. No matter where he goes in the city, we can find him." Firefly pointed through the hole in the stone wall.

Cobra Commander and Firefly ran through the hole and Storm Shadow reluctantly followed. Even though they were sworn enemies, he felt a certain urge to protect his blood brother. But, of course, he was also curious about Cobra Commander's plan. What did he have planned?

****

-- TBC


	8. Storm Shadow Betrayed

****

Back To Reality Part 8

If he could talk, Snake Eyes would tell Kamakura to wake up. He had carried the man for more than a mile and he was getting heavy.

Snake Eyes entered a warehouse district and snapped off a lock to a warehouse door covered with an aluminum siding exterior. He closed the door behind him and found himself in the middle of empty space. From the outside the warehouse looked occupied, but it was a different story inside. It looked like it hadn't been used in years judging by all wooden crates and the filth of the concrete floor.

He put Kamakura down near a wall and stretched out his muscles as he didn't have an opportunity to do so for a while as he carried Kamakura away from the Cobra creeps who wanted them dead.

Suddenly the door he came through swung open and Firefly stood on the threshold. Snake Eyes turned quickly and felt his body armor for a weapon. Be he didn't have one. They had taken all his weapons: throwing stars, knives, guns, grenades and his sword, but he could still fight hand-to-hand.

He got into a fighting stance. Firefly pulled out a gun as he took a step into the warehouse. Cobra Commander followed him, and behind him was Storm Shadow. Cobra Commander passed Firefly and stood with his hands on his hips facing Snake Eyes. "The irony of it is this is exactly where I want you to be, Snake Eyes," he said. Cobra Commander had a gun holstered to the left leg but didn't pull it out.

He seemed to brim with confidence as if he knew something Snake Eyes didn't, which probably he did. He took a confident step towards Snake Eyes and said, "I own these warehouses. They're all controlled under a dummy corporation I created years ago when I had a little time on my hands. They're part of a sophisticated network of business ventures I undertake to make a little extra money to fund Cobra, all in the private sector of course, and a few interested, private investors."

"Then why did you bring us here? You're exposing your whole operation to us." Kamakura said, as he finally woke up. Snake Eyes looked at him as did the others present. Kamakura got on his feet and stood beside his master. "You do know when we get outta here all this will go up in smoke when G.I.Joe is told."

"And who will tell them? You? You two will be dead. But for the sake of argument they did manage to learn of these warehouses, they're empty as you can see. They merely storage vessels. Or are they? This warehouse in particular holds a special secret."

Firefly went over to a wall and removed a loose board. Behind the board was a control panel. Storm Shadow escorted the two men to an area of the warehouse, where Cobra Commander joined them.

Firefly pressed a button and an elevator in the floor lowered them down several levels into an underground lair. They stopped on the third floor and Cobra Commander finally pulled out his and shoved it into the nape of Snake Eyes back. Storm Shadow still had his sword drawn and used it to lead Kamakura out of the elevator and onto the level, following the others.

The elevator closed behind them, and Cobra Commander escorted Snake Eyes and Kamakura past a room with window walls where scientists were working on weaponry and other gadgets. A little ways down, they entered a room where two scientists awaited them.

In the room were two tables and Snake Eyes and Kamakura were strapped to them with metal binds; their wrists, ankles, legs, waist, chest and necks were secured. "Leave us," Cobra Commander said to the two scientists. "I'll call on you when I need you." The two men left as Firefly came in. He approached the others and looked at Snake Eyes and Kamakura. He extended one table to an upright position and Storm Shadow did the same to the other. "Now it's time for a little unveiling."

"What do you mean?" Storm Shadow asked curious.

"Ever since I learned Snake Eyes was the man I was searching for, for the death of my brother, the last survivor of his family, I've always wanted to gaze upon the face of his killer. Now here I have the chance." Cobra Commander reached for Snake Eyes' mask and took hold of it.

"No Commander," Storm Shadow protested, and slapped his hand away. "You can't do that. A ninja's identity is just as important as his skills."

"I know your identity, Tommy Arashikage, and it hasn't affected the manner in which you fight," he said. "I'm tired of all this secrecy with your bloody ninjas. I want everyone to reveal themselves to me now."

Firefly looked at him with confusion. "Everyone?" he said. "I can't do that Commander. If people knew what I looked like underneath this mask then my reputation would be severely compromised. I can't do it."

"That wasn't a request, Firefly."

"Then shed the underlings eyes. He's the only one who hasn't seen my real face. Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow have when we were back at the Arashikage training grounds. And you know of my identity as well."

Cobra Commander took his gun and adjusted it to stun, then he fired it at Kamakura and knocked him out cold. Snake Eyes pushed against his binds, and struggled fiercely against them, he obviously didn't like that. "Pipe down," Cobra Commander said. "He's not dead, he's stunned. And safe for the moment."

Firefly took off his mask as did Storm Shadow, it was then Cobra Commander yanked off Snake Eyes mask and was stunned at what he saw. More like traumatized.

"Oh my god!" Firefly expressed horrified.

"Blood brother," Storm Shadow said. "Your--your face!"

"Those scars," Cobra Commander said in utter shock. He dropped the mask onto Snake Eyes chest and then turned around. "That's hideous. Someone put his mask back on." Tommy Arashikage quickly grabbed it and slipped it back on his head. A few moments passed and Cobra Commander turned back around and saw his mask was back on. "Apparently you've been wearing that mask for a reason and rightfully so. It must pain you deeply to have to wear a mask all the time while others stroll along with naked faces. I choose to wear a mask, but I don't have to. But I won't show you it. I could be walking next to you on the street and you wouldn't even know it's me. The plight of the average looking man, eh?"

He turned to Firefly who had put his mask back on. "Get those scientists back and hook him up to the Brain Wave Scanner." Firefly went.

"You've tried that before, Commander, and it's never worked on him," Storm Shadow said. "What makes you think it'll work this time?"

"Because this time I'm not going to probe his mind for secrets. I've learned that doesn't work on a man of his mental discipline. I have something more insidious in mind for him. New technologies, new ideas, new environments to explore and exploit." He went to Snake Eyes and looked him in the visor, placing his mask an inch from his. "You're about to be the first man to be killed within his your own mind."

The two scientists came back in. Cobra Commander backed away and allowed they to hook Snake Eyes into the new and improved Brain Wave Scanner. They flipped up his visor and placed a wireless, portal version of the BWS over his eyes and switched it on.

Then the other scientist took a syringe from a side table and inserted the needle into his left forearm. Snake Eyes was struggling against their actions, but very quickly he settled. His body went limp.

"What was in that syringe, Commander?" Tommy asked.

"A paralyzing agent and a neuro stimulator to reboot his brain."

"Reboot his brain?"

"Essentially, I've erased his memory," Cobra Commander said. "It will make his stay in the BWS environment much more realistic."

"His stay in the Brain Wave Scanner environment more realistic? I don't understand."

Cobra Commander chuckled, but Storm Shadow didn't find the situation at all amusing. "I've reprogrammed the BWS to emit a frequency that directly transmits information to the part of the brain that stimulates higher brain wave functions and which interacts with different processes of thought, and human imagination. Using a virtual reality environment I plan to make him live a life he never knew existed, an alternative reality so to speak. The battle between G.I.Joe and Cobra -- none of this will be real. And he'll believe it too, because as I said I've just wiped his memory. He's going to play a game in his mind where the consequences of winning will be his own demise."

"You--you can't do that!" Storm Shadow protested most strongly. "I won't let you destroy all that my friend is."

Firefly came out from behind the table and pointed a gun to him.

"And you intend to stop me? Ha! With what, that?" He referred to his sword. He then shot Storm Shadow with his gun on stun. Storm Shadow fell to the ground. "Put him in the environment as well," he said.

"With pleasure, Commander," Firefly said. He removed Kamakura from the second table and then strapped Storm Shadow in. One of the scientists put a second BWS device over his eyes and switched it on. Storm Shadow was then injected with the same paralyzing agent and a neuro stimulator they gave Snake Eyes.

"Ninjas are such a nuisance," Cobra Commander said. "There's nothing like having a gun at your side. I've grown tired of Storm Shadow's disloyalty and he always questions my orders when they deem unethical. They're blood brothers by pact, so now they can both die together."

"I totally agree!" Firefly said. "Friends to the end."

And both men laughed.

-- TBC


	9. The Pocket Universe

****

G.I.Joe: Back To Reality Part 9

All of a sudden everything went blank and two words in big, white bold letters, displayed themselves before his eyes.

GAME OVER!

Something lifted from his eyes and he was momentarily blinded by a bright light. He rubbed his eyes and saw that he was in an enclosed room and sitting in some sort of chair with wires attached to him.

He heard a groin and looked at another person in another chair rubbing his eyes beside him, but he didn't recognize the person. He was Japanese. He thought he should know him, but didn't.

"What happened?" he second man asked.

But the first man couldn't answer. He attempted to speak, but instead of sound reverberating from his vocal cords there was nothing but gurgling. He grabbed his neck as if he was choking.

The second man noticed this and jumped out of the chair without hesitation and went to the aid of him, ripping the wires from his skin, each attached with a sticky pad. He didn't know what to do, but was there for support. "Are you all right?" he asked the first man.

The first man nodded. Then the second man noticed a large scar on the first man's neck that went from under his left ear down and across his neck. "What happened to you?" he wondered out loud.

The first man raised his eyebrows and then shrugged his shoulders in an I-don't-know fashion.

Suddenly a door opened on the other side of the room and a man in a white medical coat came in. Both men looked in his direction and noticed the doctor-like figure. He was bald and had a jet-black, handle-bar mustache that made him look like he belonged to a assembly of mad-scientists.

He immediately went over to them and said to the second man, "Are you all right, Mr. Arashikage?" His expression was that of concern.

"Is that my name?"

"Yes, don't you remember?"

"No, I don't."

"Your name is Tommy Arashikage. I'm Dr. Mindbender, head of cybernetics division. And this man here is S.E. Smith, co-founder and part-owner of ABRCO gaming systems. You two just spent several hours in a new revolutionary game simulator that combines virtual reality and real-time game play. You were testing it out before ABRCO showcased it at the Game Pro Expo next month. These two pods are the prototypes."

The two men looked at each other and had no idea what he was talking about. "Don't you remember anything before you entered the game?"

Both men shook their heads. Dr. Mindbender sighed. "I was afraid of this. The simulators must have overloaded your synaptic path ways and caused your memory loss. We've been attempting to fix this problem without success. You see, we've discovered long exposure to the game creates a pocket universe where the gamer is engrossed in game play and where he actually believes he is the character he is playing. As much as we can gather, coming out from the game throws the person into a neuro shock and that causes memory loss." But then Dr. Mindbender smiled. "But don't worry gentlemen, this side effect is merely temporary. All our test subjects experienced this. Your memories will return in time."

"When will we get them back?" Tommy asked.

"I'm not sure. It varies with the individual. Maybe minutes, or hours, and in one instance, days."

"Days!"

"As I said, it's only temporary amnesia. Your memories will return."

"How come he can't talk? Is that another side effect of the game play?"

Dr. Mindbender looked at him strange. "Mr. Arashikage, your half-brother loss use of his vocal cords when he was a child, in a car accident. Don't you remember?"

"No," he said.

S.E. sighed.

"What are these wires for?"

"Those? They are control nodes. They're used to stimulate the muscles and neuron activity so the gamer can function in the cyber world. Without them the gamer couldn't move. But we've been trying to eliminate half of them before the game expo next month and we're making excellent progress. People might not like a lot of wires attached to their skin when they are playing the game, it might make them uncomfortable, so we are trying to create a wireless adaptor, like those visors you had on. But it is only in the development stage at the moment. If all goes well with these pods, and the game you and S.E. have created is a success, it will be on the market next year with several new games."

Dr. Mindbender gave the two men a few moments to come to grips with their reality and surroundings and then said, "Please come with me. I'll take you to a waiting area. You're disorientated, it's only natural. Our investors are anxious to hear about what you have experienced in the game stimulator. They'll be here in an hour."

"An hour? Where are we?"

"We're in your building, Mr. Arashikage. You own Extensive Enterprises. It's a subsidiary of a larger conglomerate called ABRCO, which is involved in everything from children's toys to military computer hardware. Extensive Enterprises is the largest supplier of military computers in the world. Last year you and S.E. decided to enter into the gaming market and started manufacturing the A.I. Game Pods."

"These things?"

"Yes," Dr. Mindbender said. "This was your first time entering the virtual world S.E. created."

S.E. Smith pointed at himself as if indicating, "Me?"

"Yes sir. From the specs you provided and the hundred page summary you submitted to the gaming sub-committee, you created a stunning world where a terrorist organization called G.I.JOE is out to conquer the world, and America's Elite fighting force codenamed: COBRA, a small anti-terrorist faction contracted by the United States Government, are the only ones who can stop them. You two entered the world because you detected a glitch in the system and you wanted to iron it out before the gaming expo next week."

"Oh," Tommy Arashikage said. "And did we?"

"You tell me sir. You two were going to go into the pods and play the game to see where the game was failing. Did you find the malfunction?"

"I didn't notice any malfunction, did you?" S.E. Smith shook his head. "But of course we can't remember anything about the game. Maybe we can take a look at those specs?"

"Of course, they're at your disposal. After all you collaborated with S.E. on the details."

Tommy suddenly had a nagging question. "Why do you call him S.E.?"

Dr. Mindbender hesitated for a moment. "I don't like calling him by his nick name even though he insists on it. I'm uncomfortable with it so I call Mr. Smith S.E. He tolerates it and agrees it's appropriate."

"So what's his real name? And what does S.E. stand for?"

S.E. Smith got up from the game pod and sudden felt a little woozy. Tommy caught him. "Take it easy, brother. I don't need you hitting your head and getting your memory back before I do." Tommy smirked. S.E. Smith nodded. And suddenly Tommy's question about S.E. was forgotten.

For some reason S.E. Smith felt this was all wrong. He looked around the square, white room, and saw an observation glass booth above the door. He looked at the two game pods and felt like if he had forgotten something, but it wasn't strong enough for him to remember. It was almost like he was trying to remember the title of a song and it was on the tip of his tongue, but he just couldn't get it. He looked at Tommy.

"What is it?" he asked.

S.E. Smith smiled and then shook his head as if it was nothing.

"C'mon brother, time to get out memories back," he said, and they followed the doctor out of the game stimulator room.

A teenage boy about sixteen was waiting outside the game simulator room and he was eager to see them. "So dad, how was it? Was it everything you dreamed it to be?" the boy said excited.

Tommy Arashikage froze in his tracks. "Dad?" he said, as the boy was talking to him.

The boy was puzzled. "Yeah, I'm your son. Billy." He said.

"But you're not even Japanese?"

"I'm your adopted son."

"You must forgive them Billy, your father and S.E have temporary amnesia from the game," Dr. Mindbender explained. "We're trying to rectify the problem. Maybe you can help jog their memory, Billy." He turned to Tommy. "I'll have an intern send up the specs of the game to the waiting room so you can look at them, Mr. Arashikage."

"Thank you," he said.

Dr. Mindbender left.

"You mean you don't remember me?" Billy asked his father.

"I'm sorry, Billy. Honestly I don't. Wish I did."

Billy beamed with a smile. "Oh, so you don't remember promising to give me $50 so I hang out with my friends at the movies next Saturday?"

Tommy gave a smile. "Always the ambitious one, eh Billy?" he said.

"So you do remember? Your memory is coming back?"

"No, but you're not getting $50. If you want to hang out with your friends at the movies use your own money. I must pay you an allowance, right?"

"Yeah, but I haven't got paid yet. It's $50."

"$50! Hmm. We'll see."

Billy frowned.

"If Dr. Mindbender is right and this game is going to be big, we won't need to worry about money."

"You designed it, Dad. Along with Snake Eyes here. I know it's gonna be huge!"

"Snake Eyes?"

"Yeah. That's what everyone calls Mr. Smith due to his…" Then he stopped.

"Due to his what?"

"I'm not sure I should say it. He doesn't mind everyone calling him that, but the reason is really, well…"

"Tell us anyway."

"Because he's so lousy at craps. He likes to gamble."

Snake Eyes raised an eyebrow and looked at Tommy as if for confirmation. Tommy shrugged. It was strange, he never took himself as someone who gambled. But if he was so bad at it, why did he like doing it? When he got his memory back that's one thing that'll change.

"Shouldn't you be school if you're my son?"

"You said I could be here when you got out. You said I could try it."

"Maybe when we get out memories back."

"Ah nuts!" he said disappointed. "I really wanted to try it."

"Where is this waiting area Dr. Mindbender spoke of? Can you take us there, Billy?"

"Sure. It's the conference room on the top floor."

Billy lead them to an elevator and they took a trip to the top floor where the conference room was. They walked down a long carpeted hallway and entered a spacious room. A large oval, oak finish table was situated in the middle of the room with a dozen or so chairs surrounding it.

On the far wall was a widescreen plasma TV, and in the middle was what appeared to be a holographic projection unit. He didn't have to guess at what it was because it was projecting a 3D rotating image in neon green of the planet. Both Tommy and Snake Eyes were mesmerized by it.

Tommy was completely blown away by the room. "If this is the conference room I wonder what my office looks like?" he said.

Snake Eyes looked at his friend and smiled. He was thinking the same thing. He was also taken back by the technological marvel of the room. It was amazing humanity had progressed this far to have this sort of technology commonplace in a simple conference room. But of course, if they worked for a firm that was number one furnishing military computer hardware all around the world, it was only natural Extensive Enterprises would have all this high-tech at their disposal.

Dr. Mindbender arrived at the door of the conference room. "Forgive me for interrupting, but I decided to hand deliver the specs to you. I neglected to give S.E. his DVB."

"DVB?" Tommy said.

"His Digital Voice Box." Dr. Mindbender had a small box in his hand the size of a case to store a pair of glasses and he opened it to reveal a small ear piece and a voice box the size of a box of matches. He gave them to Snake Eyes. "You created this for S.E., Mr. Arashikage, so he could talk. It's the only prototype, and only you know how it works. Our scientists have tried unsuccessfully to duplicate it, but without your initial blueprints, we can't find the correct modulation for the voice synthesizer to work properly. You've never told us what you did."

Tommy had no clue.

Snake Eyes looked at it and wondered what to do with it. Dr. Mindbender showed him and explained what he knew it did. He held up the ear piece first. "Put this in your ear, S.E." He did. "This small ear piece attunes to the neuron energy of your brain and scans your thought patterns into digital code." He switched on the video box and placed it on the conference table, and continued. "Your patterns are then converted into binary code and they are reverted to the voice box via a wireless linkage. And similar to chemical signals in the brain that convert thought to speech, the voice box plays on the same premise. And the truly ingenious thing is, your voice sounds human--not computerized. I would really like to know how you managed to do that, Mr. Arashikage."

Again, Tommy had no clue.

"Say something Snake Eyes," Tommy said.

"What should I say?" he said, the voice box delivering his thoughts, in a normal sort of tone. But the weird thing was, he didn't move his lips.

"You call it a N.L. or Neuron Link," Dr. Mindbender said.

"Amazing!" Tommy said, truly impressed. Though he didn't remember creating it.

Dr. Mindbender then turned to the conference table. "Since you two have lost your memories I appear to be the most qualified to help you reassert yourself back into the fold of your status as C.E.O's of Extensive Enterprises." He held a small disc in his hand and pressed a button on a control pad on the conference table and a CD-ROM disc drive popped out from edge of the table. "This is the specs to the game. It holds everything: the code, the dimensions and even the character dossiers." He inserted the disc into the CD-ROM and closed the disc drive. "So, let's get started."

Suddenly a harsh, computerized voice said in a loud manner, "Halt! Identify yourselves!" And what looked like a man stood in the doorway. But it wasn't a man. It was masked in dark-tones and green shadows from the dim-cast of the conference room lights, but from its appearance it didn't look human, more like a robot.

In its hand was a gun and it was aimed directly at them!

-- TBC


	10. A BAT Attacks

_**Back to Reality Part X**_

"Stand down, J5," Dr. Mindbender gave an order to the android. But it refused to comply with his command.

"Identify yourself immediately," the android demanded. Its enhanced electronic synthesized voice boomed with authority. With its gun pointed at Arashikage and Smith, and their hands raised above their heads, the android was obviously in complete control. "I repeat, identity yourself!" it said.

"I command you to lower your weapon, J5," Dr. Mindbender said in the same authoritative and commanding tone he used before.

"Voice of Dr. Julius Mindbender confirmed," the android said. And Mindbender seemed to breath a sigh of relief, however his ease was short lived, as he saw the android had not lowered the gun. "Identify yourself, immediately," he demanded from Arashikage and Smith.

"You know who they are, J5," Dr. Mindbender said. "Check your memory banks for Dr. Thomas Arashikage and Jonathan "Snake Eyes" Smith."

The android seemed to compile the information for a brief moment.

The red sensor light in its rectangular electronic eye where human eyes on a human face should be moved back and forth. It appeared to lull for a time as it searched for those names. The eye stopped, and it said, "Names referenced in organization archives. State security clearance and associate pass code for further identification, please," it requested.

Tommy Arashikage looked at Mindbender and shrugged. "What clearance pass code?" he said. He then looked at Snake Eyes. He shrugged as well. He turned back at the android, who had the gun pointed directly at him. It's appearance was authoritative and menacing. It's entire body appeared to be made out of a strong metal alloy. It was 6'2" in height and had a metal exoskeleton structure that gave it a hardened, almost militaristic look. "I've forgotten it," he finally said.

J5, the android, compiled his answer; its electronic eye moved. "Identification unconfirmed," it said. "Please state clearance code."

"Deactivation code: A5782-Q," Dr. Mindbender quickly said.

"Command recognized, but not accepted," J5 said. "There are intruders on the premises. Article 56, subsection 6, paragraph 4 of the building security code states override command is nullified during a crisis situation. The apprehension of intruders supersedes override command. The intruders must be captured. Deactivation code: A5782-Q not valid."

Mindbender's mouth went completely agape. "But… that's impossible! I can't deactivate it," Dr. Mindbender said, jerking his head towards them. "It sees you as intruders. You must state your clearance code to override its programming."

"I don't know it," Tommy said, shaking his head. "Snake Eyes, do you remember yours?"

"No," Snake Eyes said, the electronic reverberations of the voice box resounded. "I've forgotten mind too. What do we do?"

"Two options: surrender or fight," Tommy said.

"Fight an android?" Snake Eyes expressed disbelief.

"Mindbender, what is this android's capabilities? Does it have any weaknesses? I need to know."

Dr. Mindbender had to think for a moment. "None as far as I know," he said. "It's a prototype for a military war machine for the government. A Battle Android Trooper, or BAT for short. We call is J5, after Johnny Five from the Short Circuit movies in the mid '80's, and also it's the fifth constructed prototype. The Pentagon plan on sending it out on missions where it is too dangerous for humans to venture. We're testing its response time by using it as building security presently. Unfortunately, there are still a few bugs we need to work out."

"I'd say this is a major bug," Snake Eyes said. "You should never introduce a law command that can override a deactivation circuit."

"Programming had assured me that that bug had been dealt with, but apparently it hasn't," Mindbender said apologetically. "There's no way to shut it down. Only your security clearance code will stop it."

"What if we just surrender to it? Will it stop then?" Snake Eyes wondered. "We surrender," he then said to J5. "We surrender."

"State security clearance code or I will commence firing in five seconds," J5 stated.

"Apparently it doesn't like your white flag," Tommy said.

"Any suggestions?" Snake Eyes said.

"Looks like we have only one option open to us," Tommy said.

Time elapsed, and J5's patience ran out, if an android had patience, and it commenced firing at them. Laser bolts shot through the air like lightning in a freak storm. Tommy and Snake Eyes ducked for cover underneath the large conference table.

"I order you to stop this, J5," Dr. Mindbender commanded, and tried to physically force the android to cease his attack. He grabbed J5's left arm and yanked on it, trying to make it drop the gun. J5 felt the yanking of its appendence and suddenly jerked its head in Mindbender's direction. Dr. Mindbender stopped immediate as the android's sensory eye moved, looking at him.

Mindbender loosed his grip, not because it was looking at him, but because he was fearful of the possible repercussion of J5.

"Reclassification initiated," it said. And Dr. Mindbender backed away. J5 aimed its gun at him. "Dr. Julius Mindbender classified as an enemy. Accomplice to intruders. Kill intruder accomplice."

The situation had become very unstable, and Tommy and Snake Eyes peaked their heads over the conference table after listening to J5's proclamation about Dr. Mindbender. They looked at each other, and nodded as if knowing what the other was thinking, and immediately stood up.

J5 sensed their movement and turned its head back towards them. "Intruders, kill intruders," it said, and readjusted its weapon and targeting sensors.

But before it could fire at them, the two of them formulated a makeshift plan, and grabbed hold of the conference table from either side. With tremendous strength, they pushed it forward and jammed it into J5's waist. The android heaved over from the impact and its arms hit the table, shattering the glass on that side of the table.

However, they efforts to relieve J5 of its weapon failed, and it brought it back to bare on them. Its electric eye synchronizing with its targets. And it started to fire at them again, sending a barrage of laser fire in their direction.

Tommy and Snake Eyes ducked for cover underneath the conference table once again, but it was of no protection from J5's weapons fire. The glass shattered on the other side of the table and showered them with glass. They covered them headed from falling glass.

Suddenly Tommy snorted angry. "Okay, that's it, I've had enough," he said. "No bucket of bolts is going to get the better of Tommy Arashikage. My family has a long history of overcoming tremendous odds to gain victory."

"What do you plan on doing?" Snake Eyes wondered, asked.

"Even the odds," he said, with a determined stare.

And suddenly he grabbed a few pieces of broken shards of glass and rolled out from underneath the conference table. Then he quickly rose to his feet and with the swiftness of a ninja, he tossed those shards like shuriken, Japanese throwing stars, snapping them through the air, with a sudden jerking motion of his right hand, at J5. A few droplets of blood accompanied each shard, but Tommy ignored the cuts on his hand from holding the shards.

J5 continued to fire, but instead of aiming at Tommy, it targeted the shards, and destroyed all but one of them. The one that got through, the last one Tommy threw in fact, embedded itself in the barrel of J5's laser, and when J5 attempted to dislodge it by discharging the weapon, it exploded in its hand, destroying the laser.

Snake Eyes let out a cheer of praise for his friend and got to his feet. "Way to go, Tommy," he said. "How on earth did you learn to do that?"

"I don't know; the only way I can explain it is I did it on instinct," Tommy said, equally surprised.

--

"This is getting exciting!" Slice said elated, watching the action simulated by the portable BWS devices both Storm Shadow and Snake Eyes were wearing and displayed on a television monition attached to a rather large control panel and keypad. "It's just like watching a live soap opera."

Cobra Commander sat in a chair and typed on a keypad as the others, Firefly and Slice, watched the monitor. "It's only just begun, Slice," Cobra Commander said. "I devised this pocket universe and I control every aspect of it. And the best is yet to come. This is merely the beginning of their journey. It's taken years to build this virtual world and design every specification for complete interactive interaction."

"You're speaking in riddles to him, Commander," Firefly mocked.

"I know what he's saying, Firefly, or have you forgotten I have a technical degree from Devry," Slice said. "Don't always judge a book by its cover, because more times than naught, you'll get burned."

"Actual experience in the field dictates a person's worth, ninja-rat, and a one-year correspondence course over the internet doesn't put you in the same class as others who have actually attended actual school."

"Enough," Cobra Commander snapped at them. "Squabble something place else; there's fun to be had and you're ruining mine!"

"Sorry, Commander," Slice apologized, but Firefly did not. He was of the disposition that he never said he was sorry for anything or any action he took. He was getting paid for his expertise in this little venture and he had done his work. He set everything up for Cobra Commander in this isolated little warehouse. And that's all he was paid to do.

After a few moments of quiet, Slice said, "How did you manage to erase their identities, Commander?"

"Glad you asked," he said. "I'm using proto-sensory emission," he explained. "Fusing PSE into bursts of flashing light in conjunction with the mind manipulation of the Brain Wave Scanner, I'm able to temporarily erase their memories, while leaving a few tiny aspects of their personality intact." He continued to feed information into the simulation by using the keypad. "However," he continued. "It won't last forever. Eventually, Storm Shadow and Snake Eyes will regain their memories, but I plan on killing them way before that. I hate to lose a valuable ninja like Storm Shadow, but anyone who can overpower the Brain Wave Scanner is a very dangerous man to have around. This time, he won't escape."

"If it was me, I'd just fry his neutrons and be done with it," Firefly said, looking over at Storm Shadow, who was strapped with binds to a metal table, his face unmasked, secured into a portal version of the BWS.

"That's the difference between you and I, Firefly," Cobra Commander said. "I have the patience of a saint when it comes to revenge. I'm absolutely confident nothing will fail. I won't be denied this time."

"They seem so peaceful laying here unfettered," Slice said. He made his way over to them. He stood between the metal tables with his sword in his hand. Snake Eyes was on the left and Storm Shadow was on the right. "It would be so easy to slice their throats and watch the blood ooze out of their bodies. You know what they say when you die in your dreams. They theorize you die for real. But no one has been able to prove that."

"You watch too many horror movies, Slice," Firefly said.

Slice looked at him and gave him a nasty look from behind his mesh mask. But it appeared Firefly foresaw his reaction and smirked behind his mask. The curl of his mouth forming in the cloth.

"It would be easy to kill them, Slice," Cobra Commander said, "however, they would ruin the sport of what I have in store for them. I want them to suffer as I have. If they think they know what pain is, then they're dead wrong. I will show them what true pain is."

Slice looked back at Cobra Commander. "You have the mind of a megalomaniac, Cobra Commander, but that's why I enjoy working for you," he said. "Let them discover what true pain is, destroy their minds."

Cobra Commander chuckled softly, but failed to look at him. Instead he continued typing at the keypad. "Now I know why I hired your services, Slice," he said. "You're a man of my own heart."

Firefly crossed his arms across his chest, annoyed.

--

Little did they know, Kamakura was starting to regain consciousness from his chained position on the wall in the warehouse.

- tbc


	11. The First Glitch In The Program

_I know updates of this story are scarce, but I want to finish this story and hopefully my fans want me, too? So here is ch.11, for your reading approval. And believe me, from now on, things are going to heat up!_

_**Back To Reality C.11**_

If an android looked pissed, J5 looked it now.

It's optical eye scanned the room and then zoomed in on Tommy Arashikage standing next to the conference table with the glass projectiles in his hand.

It raised its right hand and calculated the repair time it would take for its internal nanobots to fix it. The gun it was holding had exploded in its hand from an chain reaction overload caused by one of the projectiles lodged in the barrel of the weapon. But the gun wasn't its only weapon in its arsenal.

"J5. I order you to cease your actions, now!" Dr. Mindbender barked out an order; but J5 ignored him.

"Your option to surrender has expired," J5 said. "Kill the intruders!"

Releasing its internal nanobots, they swarmed around its right arm and began to rebuild it into something else.

"What's it doing?" Tommy asked nervously.

Dr. Mindbender's mouth went agape in shock, he couldn't believe what he was seeing. "Oh, no! It's using its nanobots to reconstruct its arm into a more powerful weapon!" he said. "You must take cover, quickly!"

Tommy and Snake-Eyes looked at each other and frantically found cover. Snake Eyes ran and jumped behind a leather couch and Tommy decided to take cover underneath what he considered the most secured part of the conference table.

--

"Watch this, gentlemen," Cobra Commander said, typing a few algorithms into the computer console, as Firefly and Slice watched on. "Let's see how our heroes do against a Super BAT." He chuckled and then laughed. "I love action flicks!"

--

The nanobots finished their work and crawled back into J5's body. What they left was truly awesome. They had rebuilt J5's right arm into a giant laser cannon. J5 then started to fire at them, sending a tremendous blast in Tommy's direction. When the blast blew apart half the conference table, Snake Eyes stood up, put his hands in the air, and shouted, "Stop it, we surrender!"

J5 repositioned his cannon on Snake Eyes. Snake Eyes stood frozen for a second, his eyebrows rose in fear knowing what was coming, and then jumped out of the way as a blast came at him. The impact blew the couch to sheds.

"Holy shit!" Snake Eyes said, looking back at the devastation. He lay on the floor next to the debris from the conference table. "We've gotta stop it!" he said to Tommy, insistent on a course of action. "And we gotta do it now!"

"I agree," Tommy said.

Suddenly three men in black uniforms burst into the room. The secretary in the hallway had called them. Witnessing the devastation and seeing a robot with a giant cannon for an arm, and two men cowering on the floor behind the conference table, they pulled out their guns and fired upon the strange-looking robot.

Dr. Mindbender dropped to the ground and ducked for cover as they fired upon J5. However, their blasts merely ricochet off of J5's metallic plating and hit the walls. He looked up, and shouted to security, "Stop attacking my android!"

"Doctor, what is this thing?" Major Sebastian Bludd, head of building's security, demanded, his heavy Australian accent coming through. He had a patch over his right eye, and was ex-military and a trained marksman.

"It's not complying to my override commands," Dr. Mindbender said back. "Be careful! J5 might classify you and your men as a threat and fire on you if you don't stop! It's malfunctioning, and I don't know how to stop it!"

"Dr. Mindbender. . ." Snake Eyes called out to him, cowering behind the conference table with Tommy. "Distract J5. I think I know how to stop it."

"How?" he said, over the sound of blistering weapons fire, looking at Snake Eyes across the room. "But okay," he further said. "Major Bludd, distract J5."

"And how am I supposed to do that, doctor?" Maj. Bludd said, as his men continued to fire on J5. J5 made no hint at retaliation and he was getting no damage from the laser blasts, but that could soon change if something wasn't done.

Major Bludd then he had an idea. He told his men to stop firing at J5 and then pulled out a small grenade, pulling the pin out with a thumb. "You know what this is, don't you, J5?" he said to the android. "I'm ordering you to cease and decease or I will destroy you."

J5 seemed unfazed by the Major's threat. If the laser blasts caused no damage, what could a small grenade do? Very little, if at all, with its heavy armor plating. Despite the major posed a threat to it, it did not fire upon Major Bludd or his men.

"Please put the grenade down, Major," J5 said unhostile-like.

"Disarm your weapon," the Major barked an order. "You're malfunctioning. Search your personal files and look for John Smith and Thomas Arashikage. These men work here." But J5 appeared to refuse to comply to the data retrieval order. "I will destroy you if you do not comply with my orders. Deactivate, now."

"Order to deactivate denied," J5 said. "Orders to terminate intruders supersedes deactivation command. Article 56. . ."

If there was ever a time to strike, now was the time. As J5 was distracted, Snake Eyes stealthily came around the conference table, making his way through its blind spot, got behind it, and surprisingly, going on instinct, kicked high in the air with a roundhouse kick and loped off J5's head. J5's head flew through the air and bounced on the floor a few times, rolled, and then stopped. Without its head, J5's body dropped like a lump of rubbish.

Everyone was astounded at such an astonishing feat. "Johnny, how in the hell did you do that?" Tommy said dumbfounded, standing up from the far end of the conference table. He held his right arm. He had been grazed by piece of flying debris that had been blasted apart when the laser blast hit the table.

"Are you okay, Tommy?" he said, noticing his friend's injury.

"Yeah, just grazed," Tommy replied. Tommy walked over broken glass and approached J5's lifeless body. Its limp metallic body lay on the floor like a pile of scrap metal. "Dr. Mindbender, what the hell were you thinking in creating such a deadly weapon?"

Dr. Mindbender swallowed nervously. "I apologize profusely, sir," he said. "But you authorized the project for the military, so we could mass produce them and save soldiers lives in hostile areas. I guess there were a lot more bugs in the data matrix than I realized."

"Who is the programmer to J5?" he demanded. "He has some explaining to do."

"I co-designed the analytical mainframe, but the majority of the memory anagrams were programmed by the S.I. Mainframe company and disturbed to us by M.A.R.S."

"What the hell is MARS?"

Dr. Mindbender looked relieved Major Bludd put the pin back in the grenade.

"Why didn't he attack us, doctor?" Major Bludd said.

"Probably because he recognized your voice pattern as being friendly," he said. "He has orders to apprehend intruders and terminate them if they pose a threat. Thank you for, Major. Your gave Snake Eyes the time he needed to do what he did. Which was remarkable, I must say!"

"I agree," Maj. Bludd said. "Do you have any martial arts training, sir?"

"Not that I recall," Snake Eyes said. "But something about it did feel familiar, like I knew exactly what I was doing."

"You two are experiencing amnesia, so perhaps when your memories return, you will remember something to explain it," Dr. Mindbender said. "Perhaps you took martial arts when you were a kid?"

Snake Eyes shrugged his shoulders in an I-don't-know fashion.

Suddenly Tommy looked around and saw Billy cowering in a corner with his arms over his ears. He went over to him and put a hand on his shoulder. Billy jerked startled. Then he saw who had touched him and breathed relieved.

"Dad, I was so scared," Billy said.

"I know, so was I," he said smiling, and helped his son to his feet.

Then Billy noticed his father's arm. "Dad, you're bleeding," he said.

Tommy lifted his hand from the wound on his right bicep. Blood soaked his white shirt where he was grazed by a piece of flying debris. "I'm fine, Billy," he said. "I doesn't hurt, surprisingly. It looks worse than it feels."

"Major, call medical services, and have them send up a doctor to look at Mr. Arashikage's arm," Dr. Mindbender said.

"Right away, doctor," Major Bludd said, and radioed it on his radio.

Suddenly, a tall, handsome, muscular, bald-headed man, and a beautifully striking, long, dark-haired woman, with round glasses, shorter than the man, both wearing business attire, stood beyond the door to the conference room. The man was holding a black leather brief-case, while the woman, was holding what looked like a portfolio case. They looked awestruck at the sight they beheld.

"Mr. Arashikage, what happened here?" the man asked.

"Mr. McCullen, Ms. DeCobray. . ." Dr. Mindbender said surprised, stepping over J5, greeting them at the door. "We weren't expecting you for another hour. I must apologize for this mess, we had an incident with the Battle Android Trooper System prototype. It malfunctioned."

DeCobray eyed the room haphazardly. Then she said in a very noticeable, and heavy German accent, "That, my good doctor, is an understatement."

McCullen then said, "But the practical applications of this new weapon is truly extraordinary. Don't let one glitch ruin Extensive Enterprises greatest cash cow opportunity."

"It almost killed us!" Tommy said angrily.

McCullen turned his gaze to him. "Almost, Mr. Arashikage, but it didn't," he said. "Thanks to Mr. Smith's brilliant thinking, which we both saw, you are safe. Extensive Enterprises is in the business to make money, we'd expect a little glitch here and there in our merchandise. Nothing is perfect."

"Who are you?" Snake Eyes said.

For a second, McCullen was confused by the question. Then he looked at Dr. Mindbender, as if looking for the answer. "I apologize, Mr. McCullen, but Mr. Arashikage and Mr. Smith have just exited from the new A.I. simulator we're testing for the gaming expo next week, and apparently there are a few bugs with the system. Long exposure to it causes the user temporary amnesia." He said. "Mr. Arashikage, Mr. Smith; this is James McCullen, head of M.A.R.S (Marketing And Research Services), and his assistant, Ms. Anastasia DeCobray, his top marketing consultant. Together, they have been Extensive Enterprises godsend. Without their brilliant marketing campaigns, Extensive Enterprise would not be the Fortune 500 company is it today."

Tommy's eyes narrowed suspiciously. For some reason, he disliked the man already, and he didn't even know him. There was just something that rubbed him the wrong way about the man. McCullen looked like a thug in a business suit and he hated people like that, or at least, he thought it did.

"Shall we retire to another boardroom?" Dr. Mindbender offered.

"I think that would be prudent," McCullen said. "It's very unlikely that we are going to be able to conduct any business here."

Dr. Mindbender escorted them to a second boardroom that looked very much like the first, but smaller. Medical services arrived and attended to Tommy's arm.

They sat down at a large rectangular table. McCullen and DeCobray; Tommy and Snake Eyes sat on opposite ends. Dr. Mindbender sat beside Snake Eyes. Then McCullen said, noticing Billy, "This is no place for children, Mr. Arashikage."

"My son stays," Tommy replied strongly. "He's just had a very nasty experience and I want him at my side. Whatever is spoken will say between us, right Billy?"

Billy nodded. He sat down next to his father.

It was obvious that McCullen didn't like that idea, but he had very little recourse in the matter. Both M.A.R.S. and Extensive Enterprises had a symbiotic relationship, and each needed the other, so he supposed he could tolerate a little inconvenience, especially when it came to his best client. "Very well, Mr. Arashikage," McCullen said. "Shall we get down to business?"

For the next hour and a half, they talked business. From marketing campaigns to other business affiliates, distribution of future endeavors, financial gains and losses, and even the future of the A.I. game simulator which was to be the spotlight attraction at the gaming expo.

"Once all the bugs are eliminated from the simulator game," McCullen started to say, "we stand to make billions of dollars in sales and distribution in the first year alone. Then, once the system is established in America, we'll gradually release other games to stimulate grown."

"We're already in talks with a Japanese gaming firm to market the simulator in Japan," Anastasia DeCobray said.

"That sounds promising," SE said, eagerly interested, the DVB, resounding his electronic synthesized voice colorfully.

James McCullen looked at Anastasia, and then back at Tommy. "You should also seriously think about patenting the DVB and marketing the idea to the public, Mr. Arashikage. I believe this technology shouldn't by wasted on just one man. There are so many applications for this technology. Extensive Enterprises would make billions!"

"Thank you, but no," Tommy said straightly. "I think we've discussed enough business for today. My brother and I are feeling a little tried at the moment, if you excuse us." Snake Eyes agreed, and they then left the room. Billy followed them. The others were befuddled by their sudden exit.

Tommy lead SE a little ways down the hallway and out of earshot of the boardroom. "So, what do you think, Johnny?" he said to S.E.

"What they said sounds promising, especially when it comes to the simulator," SE said. "And I think they're right. You really should reconsider marketing the DVB to the world. We could help millions of people reclaim their voices. This brilliant technology shouldn't be reserved just for me."

"Not about that, I mean about McCullen and DeCobray," he said. "There's something about them that are awfully familiar and I don't mean in a good way."

"They're our business partners, are we supposed to like all of them?" Snake Eyes remarked. "But you're right, I got a bad vibe from them, for some reason. Like, they supposed to be someone else." Then Snake Eyes stood thoughtfully for a moment and then said, as if having an epiphany, "Cobra?" he said.

Tommy's eyes went wide, sharing the realization.

"What's Cobra?" Billy asked. "Are you talking about the game?"

But both shook their heads.

"No, Billy, weren't not," Tommy said.

_**-- tbc**_


	12. A Forgotten Family

_**GIJOE: BACK TO REALITY CH.12**_

Firefly crossed his arms across his chest indifferently as if he wasn't the bit surprised that the Commander's virtual reality simulator game program had a major glitch in it, allowing Storm Shadow and Snake Eyes to break the Brainwave Scanner's mental manipulative control. Despite being ninja, the duo should not be able to break from their implanted reality that easily.

The Commander was highly intelligent when it came computer hardware, but he knew very little about digital code sequencers and wet-wire systems that handled the heavy trafficked code in programs of this nature. He, on the other hand, did know, despite his background in munitions. With his background in explosives and advanced weaponry and warfare, he had to be constantly on track with the newest technology to ever improve and keep his profession up-to-date.

"The data sequences are overloading, Commander," he remarked. "In spontaneously manipulating the BAT program, by interfering with the natural state of the implanted simulation already established, you're not only creating pockets of confusion for its characters, namely Storm Shadow and Snake Eyes, but you're also destabilizing the code breakers and converting them into fragments. You must allow the program to adjust before inputting new data."

Slice looked at him like a deer caught in the highlights, while Cobra Commander looked at him with new admiration and appreciation. He saw the Commander's eyes narrow slightly, age lines showed at the corner of his eyes through his visual face plate, indicating he was smirking. "I knew I kept you around for a reason, Firefly…" He stood up from his chair. "Show me." Offering it to him.

Firefly accepted it and sat down and he started to design a special code for the program on a side bar. Then he explained what it did to the Commander. The Commander accepted his explanation and Firefly implemented it into the program. The system returned to normal as the data sequences adjusted for the new data. It only took a few seconds for it to take effect.

Firefly returned the chair back to the Commander and he sat down. The Commander took a look at the special code Firefly had typed in and nodded. "Excellent job, Firefly! A college education is a wonderful thing! Expect a sizable bonus in your Swiss account for this," he said, and Firefly said, "Thank you, Commander. Just providing knowledge where needed."

"I went to college," Slice said, but no one seemed to care.

"It's going to take a lot more than some fancy computer program to break my Master's mind!" Kamakura finally announced that he was awake. He had been listening and watching the events unfold for quite some time. They all looked at him, his wrists and ankles shackling him to the far brick wall. "Your wasting your time, there's no way Snake Eyes is ever going to believe that phony world."

"Shut him up," the Commander said casually, with a hint of annoyance, and Slice did the honors. He went over to Kamakura and commenced in silencing him, by delivering his own technique of quieting a noisy nuance.

Firefly and the Commander ignored Kamakura's cries of pain, as Slice continuously pummeled him, giving focus instead, watching the large TV screen, to the simulated world that they had inserted Storm Shadow and Snake Eyes.

---

Snake Eyes put a hand to his head feeling a slight pain. Tommy felt the same pain. It was as if they were experiencing a simultaneous headache. Lowering his hand Snake Eyes said, "All of a sudden I've got a headache."

"Me too, must be from the VR simulator," Tommy said. "Or it could be from everything we heard in the conference room and all that techno-babel."

"Your true memories might be trying to break through," Billy said happily.

Tommy smiled. "I hope so, squirt," he said, and ruffled the boy's head with a hand. "Can you get your Dad a bottle of water?"

"Sure, Dad," Billy said. "There's a kitchen on this floor. I'll BRB."

"BRB?"

"Be right back," Billy said. "Boy, that game really did scramble your brain if you don't remember what simple computer lingo means, didn't it, Dad?"

"I guess so. That's why we need you to help us until they return." Tommy smiled thin.

"I'll get you your water now, Dad."

"Thanks son," Tommy said, and Billy went down the hall, turning a corner.

"My headache's starting to go away," Snake Eyes said.

"Mine too," Tommy said. "Must've been a short migrate."

"But both of us, together, at the same time? Don't you think that's a little odd?"

"Well, considering everything we discussed with McCullen and DeCobray in there, I would think there was something wrong with us if we didn't have a collective migrate. Some of that stuff they talked about was way over my head."

"Agreed. And I just nodded with most of it. They were talking like we were aware of everything, that we should know everything… but my mind is still so foggy."

Tommy nodded suspiciously. "Dr. Mindbender said our memories should've returned by now," he said. "But I'm not remembering anything new, are you?"

Snake Eyes shook his head. "Nothing," he said.

Billy returned with two bottles of water and gave one to his father and the other one to Snake Eyes. "Hearya go, Dad, and I brought one for you too, Snake Eyes," he said. Tommy took a slip to parch his dry mouth.

"Thanks Billy," Snake Eyes said, but he didn't drink any. "Not to be rude, Billy, but I'm feeling uncomfortable with you calling me Snake Eyes. It sounds so…unlucky. Why don't you call me by my first name."

"Sure. I won't call you Snake Eyes anymore, John." He said.

To Snake Eyes, John didn't feel right. Something gnawed at the back of his mind telling him something wasn't right. But until he figured out what that something was, he'd have to accept the situation at face value despite its suspicious nature.

Dr. Mindbender exited the conference room and came over to Snake Eyes and Tommy. He said, "Are you two all right? I was a little worried when you left suddenly like that. Mr. McCullen and Ms. DeCobray are our best clients."

"I apologize, doc, but we had to get outta there," Tommy said. "The atmosphere was a little stifling especially when our memories haven't returned yet."

Dr. Mindbender's eyes widened with concern. "Your memories haven't returned yet? That's very odd. You should at least have gotten partial memory return."

"Not a thing, doctor," Snake Eyes said.

"This isn't good," he said. "There must be more damage to your sciatic neutrons that I previously hypothesized or that the tests concluded. But no one has remained that long in the game simulator like the two of you did. I'll get a team on the problem a.s.a.p. and have the test pods ready for the gaming expo next month. In the meantime… why don't you go home to visit your families while I conclude things here. Perhaps being with them will trigger your memories to return."

"I don't understand, what family? Billy is the only one I have." Tommy said.

"Mr. Smith's family," Dr. Mindbender said. "His wife and three kids."

Snake Eyes' mouth dropped shocked. "I have a wife and kids?" he said.

---

As they took the elevator down to the main floor, Billy told John everything about his family. He then lead them to the reception area where a chuffer was waiting for them to drive them home. They left the building and got into a long black limo. The temperature outside was warm, but the temperature inside was nice and cool. The car drove off. "I feel so ashamed," Snake Eyes said, as he looked at the photos in his wallet of his wife and three children. "I can't believe I don't remember them. I can't go home not knowing who they are!"

"Relax, John," Billy said, giving him a smile, sitting opposite him in the car. "Things will be fine. When we explain the situation I'm sure they'll understand."

"What are their names again?" he asked Billy.

Billy named them off as Snake Eyes looked at the picture. They were all together in a family portrait, like one big, happy family.

"Your oldest boy, his name is Clayton, he's 12. The second oldest, Ralph, he's 10, and the youngest is Hara, she's 9," Billy said. "And your wife's name is--"

"Shana," Snake Eyes suddenly spoke.

"So are you starting to remember?"

Snake Eyes looked at the picture, really focused on his wife's face, and said, "No, not exactly… it's just, for some reason, I already knew it."

"That's great!" Billy said excited. "I think you're starting to remember."

"How did I ever meet such a beautiful woman like that?" Snake Eyes wondered out loud.

_**-- tbc**_


	13. The Plot Thickens

Author's Note: Let me know how I'm doing.

_**Back to Reality - Part 13**_

"You actually have him married to Shana O'Hara?" Firefly said brashly. "Isn't that dangerous, Commander? Snake Eyes is in love with Scarlet in real life. In making her his wife, it might trigger his real memories to filter through your programming."

"Your concerns are noted, Firefly, but they're unwarranted," the Commander said. "The new and improved BWS (Brainwave Scanner) is infallible. That brief moment when both Snake Eyes and Arashikage suspected deception was all a part of my plan. Ninja are a suspicious bunch by nature and therefore I wanted them to feel that emotion."

"But you took it away, why?" Firefly asked.

"Because the game has only begun, my fluttery friend," the Commander said. "If I wanted them dead I would've done so sooner, but we haven't even gotten to the second level yet."

"Second level?" Firefly said. "How many levels are there in this a game of yours?"

"As many as I want," he said plainly. "I've designed the program to adapt and facilitate to anything those two ninjas do. So nothing they do will surprise me."

"Never underestimate a ninja, Commander," Firefly warned.

Cobra Commander stopped what he was typing into the computer console and looked at Firefly. The man's face was unmasked, but he knew what he was looking at wasn't the real man's identity. The man was using some sort of Ninja mind trick to disguise his true face. Firefly had some sort of mysterious power that reached deep into a person's mind and scrambled things about a little, much like the BWS, but on a slightly more minimalist scale. While the BWS worked on a broader scale, Firefly dealt on a specific level. He targeted the sensory part of the brain and delivered a false image for the eyes to see. What the Commander saw was a blonde haired man with a hard looking, but cocky, slightly battle scarred face. G.I.Joe records profiled him to have this appearance, but looks have a way to be deceptive when it came to a man with the suggestive power that Firefly had. Where and how he got it was a mystery, though he probably developed it when he spent an indeterminate amount of time among the ninjas of the Arashikage Clan before Zartan's arrow killed the Hard Master and it was disbanded.

He remembered the first time he dealt with Firefly. He called upon his reputable services to infiltrate the Arashikage Clan and kill Snake Eyes. But due to still unexplainable circumstances he was unable to accomplish his mission and Zartan had to be brought it to finish the job. Though Firefly still kept the money he was paid to do the job, which still irked him even after all these years. And then there were all those times where he paid upfront for his services and Firefly failed to complete other appointed tasks. His motto was: No refunds. Which, for a profitable business man, was very prolific and proficient. And for that point alone he admired him. But the Commander was a business man too and when he paid for a job to be done it had better be done or else!

"You're starting to get on my nerves, Firefly," the Commander said. "Go see how Slice is doing, now." He said firmly and returned to his computer console and continued typing in code for his game.

Firefly gritted his teeth inside a closed mouth, but he couldn't hide the annoyed expression dealt out through his eyes. He snorted short and then left, his ears capturing a low chuckle by the Commander.

He joined Slice, and watched as he dealt out blow after blow to the red-haired ninja, Kamakura. Delivering several uppercut punches to Kamakura's ribs and face. Blood streamed down Kamakura's face and from the contact of Slice's punches, he wouldn't be surprised if he had broken one or more of Kamakura's ribs.

"That's enough," he barked out an order to Slice, and Slice halted a punch in mid stride, and looked at him strangely.

"Why?" Slice wondered. "I'm not finished with him yet." Sweat dripped down his boyish looking face. The thirty-something year old was a physically fit man and had a lush head of jet black hair. "Did the Commander order me to stop?"

"No, I did," Firefly said executively, looking at Kamakura. He was slumped down, chains shackled around his wrists attached to the wall. They were the only things keeping him from falling flat on his face. Slice stepped back perturbed, as Firefly went over to Kamakura, grabbed his bloodied chin, jerked it up, and looked directly into the ninja's eyes. "Your believes are the only thing keeping you going," he said judiciously, "but they were not save you this time."

Through one open but bloodied eye, the other was sealed by soft muscle protecting it from potential further harm, a barrage of punches delivered by Slice closing it, Kamakura glared at Firefly and then spat blood into his face. Firefly jerked up a hand reactively, but he was too slow. He then wiped the blood from his face with the same hand. He looked at his palm and saw the life blood of the man mixed with saliva. He then tightened his palm and squeezed the mixture into one, absorbing it into his skin.

Slice looked perplexed by Firefly's reaction. If Kamakura had done that to him, he'd continue with the beating until he rendered the man unconscious. But he found Firefly to be an enigmatic man with a irrational methodical for thought. He was a ninja, too, but he dealt with situations on a whole different level. Even after all these years, he still hadn't figured the man out.

Firefly jerked his head at Slice, and narrowed his eyes in a very dissatisfying manner. "And what are looking at?" he barked out.

Slice put his hands up responsively, and said, "Nothing. What should I do with him?" he then asked.

Firefly removed his hand from Kamakura's chin, and the ninja's face slumped down, unable to hold an erect position, and said, "I don't care. Do whatever you please. But don't kill him." He then turned back around and headed back to the Commander.

He looked at his hand thoughtfully and then turned and looked at Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow laying down on metal meat slab tables he stole from a near-by butcher shop, hooked up to the BWS portable devices.

And then he wondered why what the Commander was doing to them was bothering him. It hadn't bothered him before, but for some unexplained reason, it did now. A ninja spent his entire life building up mental barriers fortified with discipline techniques to aid in everyday life. Storm Shadow and Snake Eyes were two such men who were extraordinary people who mastered the art of the ninja. And even though their lives have been racked with tragedy, they continue to retain that discipline to help them cope with their past. He was a ninja too, but he chose a different path, and a more modern job appointment. But he still retained a piece of his skilful training, using his mental discipline to send out a signal to disguise his true identity. He felt naked without his camouflage mask, but with this power, he felt somewhat clothed, hidden to the world, like he always wanted.

But there was a part of him that had a yearning to be average. And he often wondered what his life would have been like if he had not chosen his ambiguous profession. Would he have two point five kids and a white picket fence surrounding a two story house with a built in fireplace and a spacious kitchen, a wife who loved him congruently, a mortgage, watching football, hockey, or other sports, and playing poker with friends every Sunday?

Did he really want that?

He took note of his life and past accomplishes and shook his head no. He was proud of who had had become and the riches that entrenched his reputation. Money was everything, and he was a happy man.

He wiped Kamakura's blood and saliva on Storm Shadow's pant leg, leaving a red smear stain on the apt ninja's clean white uniform, and then joined the Commander back at the computer console, watching Snake Eyes and Arashikage fumble around in the program the Commander had created specifically for them.

He wanted both ninja's dead, but their demise wasn't up to him, but in the hands of a man who had absolutely no respect for the wants and needs of his men. And as he looked at the events unfolding on the large monitor screen above the computer console, he imagined a very painful death for them. And affixation by mind manipulation in a stupid virtual reality game program wasn't on his list.

--

The car stopped in the driveway of a very prestigious looking, white mansion-esque house. It was a conventional looking structure without having the appearance of being too astute. The Butler, wearing a black uniform with white dress shirt, came out to greet the car, as the Chauffeur got out of the front and came around to open the left passenger side door. "Greetings Mr. Smith, Mr. Arashikage, and Master Arashikage," he said. And Billy said, "I love it when he calls me that." He smiled big.

Snake Eyes, Tommy, and Billy, all exited the car.

The Butler continued, "I trust your business dealings at Extensive Enterprise was profitable. Mrs. Smith and your children are waiting for you in the back garden."

"Thank you…" Snake Eyes hesitated, forgetting the Butler's name. In fact, he had no idea who the man was. "Hm…"

"Geeves, Mr. Smith," he said lightly. "Doctor Mindbender called us and informed us of your situation and how it transpired."

"I'm surprised he did that," Tommy said. "Our research is top secret."

"If you can't trust your Butler, who can you trust, sir?" Geeves said. "However, Mr. Smith has been 'spilling the beans' to the family for weeks now, and how the new virtual reality game pods will revolutionize how people play games in this ever changing world."

"Notty, notty, Johnny," Tommy said, smirking playfully.

Snake Eyes shrugged his shoulders, and said, "Don't blame me -- well, okay, blame me -- but I don't remember saying anything about it."

"If you'll come with me, I'll escort you to the back garden," Geeves said, and Snake Eyes, Tommy, and Billy, followed him to the front door and into the house.

Snake Eyes and Tommy felt like tourists in a foreign land as they followed Geeves through the elegant and rich looking rooms and hallways of the house, as they made their way to the back of the house. Billy, on the other have, smiled blissfully. "I never get tired of seeing this house," he said. "Gives me goose bumps."

When they made it to the back of the house, Geeves opened up a sliding glass door and extended a hand outward, to indicate they were supposed to step outside.

Outside was a large, granite stone sitting area, with copies of ancient stone Greek architectural benches and patio furniture chairs and tables, offsetting a large, lung shaped swimming pool. Surrounding the back grounds was the garden, with a variety of kept flowers and other folia and fauna. Beyond that, off a much farther distance, was a large, tall shrub maze, that extended a fair amount of distance outward.

Snake Eyes and Tommy were just awestruck at the magnificent sight they beheld, and looked at each other as if they were in the presence of royalty. "Um, this is yours?" Tommy said to him.

"Ah…" Snake Eyes blinked, not believing what he was seeing. "I-I…don't know. I think so."

Tommy stealthy maneuvered his hand around the back of Snake Eyes shoulders and suddenly pinched him on the arm. "Ow!" Snake Eyes said, jerking his arm away. "What the hell!"

"I just wanted to see if all this was real," Tommy said smirking.

Snake Eyes rubbed his arm, and said, "Well, you could've pinched your own arm to prove that," he said.

"DADDY!"

The sudden holler of children's voices called out, and before he knew it, Snake Eyes was surrounded, being hugged by three kids he didn't know. He froze, not knowing what to do. They looked up at him with smiling faces and innocent eyes of joy.

The youngest one held up her arms, and playing the part he bent down, and lifted Hara in his arms.

Hara kissed him on the right cheek, smiled cheerfully, and said, "Daddy, you're finally home! I missed you!"

"So did I," he replied falsely.

Then he noticed a gorgeous red-haired woman heading in his direction. She had long hair and movie-model-actress looks. She wore blue jeans and a white t-shirt that clung to her ample-looking breasts. She took off a pair of garden gloves as she came over to him. "Welcome home, honey," she said, and Snake Eyes's mouth felt slightly open, stunned by her awesome beauty. "What's the matter, Johnny?" she said. "Oh, yes. Dr. Mindbender told us about the accident."

"Is it true, Daddy, you don't remember us?" Ralph asked, wondering.

Snake Eyes heart thumped fast, and he rapidly looked at Shana. With her eyes-widened with alarm, he quickly thought of how deal with this, and then said to Ralph, "Of course I remember you," he saying, lying, smiling falsely. "How could I forget about all of you. I would never forget what means the most to me." And he bent down, and embraced in a collective hug with his kids, glancing up once to his wife, who smiled, welcoming the falsehood.

As Snake Eyes tried to reacquaint himself with his kids, Shana went over to Tommy, and said, "Is it true, does he not remember us?"

Tommy swallowed nervously, and then nodded. He let out a deep breath, sighing. He said, "I'm sorry, but I don't remember you either. I feel so ashamed. The accident at the lab wiped out memories."

Shana smiled sweetly. "Don't worry, there's no need to be ashamed, Tommy, I'm sure your memories will come back," she said. "Amnesia is a very tricky phenomena. Sometimes its short-term or long-term. For everyone's sake, I hope it's the latter."

"Me too," Tommy agreed.

--

Slice came over to the computer console and folded his arms across his chest, watching the sweet and tender moment happening on screen with Snake Eyes and his fake children. "I hate melodramatics on film, change the channel," he said arcane-like. But neither the Commander or Firefly was amused by the snide joke. He apologized, and then said, "So what've I missed?"

But he didn't get an answer.

_**-- tbc**_


	14. Suspicion Arises

Author's Note: Let me know how I'm doing.

_**Back to Reality - Part 14**_

Later at night, when the couple was in bed, Snake Eyes couldn't sleep. He looked up at the ceiling and folded his hands behind his head and used them as a pillow. The bright effervescence of a cloudless, full moon night through a window, in the early hours of the morning, cascaded the room and all the furniture therein in a dim white and blue hue.

He turned and looked at the sleeping beauty that slept soundly beside him, and sighed deeply. He couldn't explain why, but he felt like he was committing a form of adultery and having an elicit affair with this woman, whom he was told was his wife. But he didn't remember the woman or the three kids they had.

The telephone conversion he had with Dr. Mindbender before he went to bed was supposed to assure him that everything would turn out all right and perhaps if he got a good night sleep, his memories might have time to reorder themselves and be restored. But it was almost five o'clock in the morning and he still had amnesia.

Very softly he slipped out of bed and put a robe on, then crept like a ninja in the night out of their bedroom. He found it curious that he didn't make a noise why leaving the room, as he tip-toed into the hall. It was almost as if he was inbreed with the ability, like he knew exactly how to place his toes to walk stealthy. But then he shrugged it off, and after closing the bedroom door quietly he made his way down a C-shaped set of stairs to the lower floor.

His mind raced with many thoughts, sudden bursts of images, fleeting just as quickly as they came, of things he thought he ought to remember. Was his memory trying to restore itself?

His stomach growled loudly, like a monster in the night, and he put a hand to it, feeling the reverberations of his insides moving. In all the excitement he had forgotten to eat today. Shana said the family had already eaten, as he had send he was staying late at the office that day, and if he was hungry he could fix himself something in the kitchen. But her suggestion was soon forgotten as he tried to reacquaint himself with his children. He knew how fragile children were, their mindsets weren't developed and disciplined like adults, and if you said the wrong thing to them, it would upset them. So, he had to play the part of a good and loving father to his kids despite not really knowing who they were. The only thing he had to go on was the photograph Billy had showed him in the car of his wife and kids, Clayton, Ralph and Hara. But why did those names ring a bell? He knew those names, and not because they were his kids names. He knew them from somewhere else.

Suddenly a series of jumbled images flashed in his mind, delivering a prick of pain as each one came. Everything came at him very quickly, and he felt his head, grabbing the wooden banister of the stairs with the other to settle himself, feeling disorientation and pain.

Snake Eyes. His name was Snake Eyes. But he knew that already. He liked to gamble and was lousy at it. But something didn't make sense about that name, however. If he liked to gamble and had that nickname, how could he afford this beautiful house? It didn't make sense.

He collapsed to his knees and grabbed his face with both hands trying to make sense of the images that had just bombarded his mind. Faces, places and events, all coming at him like a vortex of information filtered through a tiny computer memory board, crashing his brain.

One of the images was of Shana, but she looked different. She wore a skin-tight yellow jump-suit and her hair was shorter. There were other images of Tommy and Billy, but they looked different: Tommy wore a mask and Billy wore an eye patch over his right eye. Maybe he was remembering a past Halloween where everyone dressed up, he thought.

He got back on his feet and as quickly as the pain had come it disappeared, the images no longer plaguing him. But the feeling, the emotions of those images, were still present, and he felt something was wrong, that something in his life was missing.

Whereas he should've turned right to get to the kitchen, he instead turned left and came to a closed door at the end of a long corridor. He blinked a couple of times to retain focus and looked back from which he came. This was obviously not the kitchen.

Still, he opened the door, and saw that the light was on inside the room. At the far end of the room was Tommy, sitting on the floor in what looked like a lotus position, meditating. From the equipment and floor mats, the room looked like it was used for exercise.

Tommy opened his eyes and saw Snake Eyes. "Can't sleep either?" he said. And Snake Eyes opened his mouth to talk but then suddenly realized he had left his Digital Voice Box, that allowed him to speak, on the bedside table in his bedroom. Instead he nodded and then walked over to him. "You left your DVB upstairs, didn't you?" And Snakes Eyes nodded. Snake Eyes used his hands and gestured to Tommy, indicating a question. "I'm mediating," he said. "I don't know why, but it's helping me focus my thoughts. Wanna join me?"

Snake Eyes accepted his offer, but thought skeptically that it would do any good. He sat down and got into a lotus position, crossing his legs over the other, and rested his hands on his knees, with his palms upright, following Tommy's example. Tommy was impressed. "You seem to have done this before," he said, and Snake Eyes shrugged his shoulders. "I don't know about you, my friend, but I have an eerie feeling that there's something wrong here. Oh, and thanks for allowing me and Billy stay over for the night. I appreciate the hospitality."

Snake Eyes smiled thin and mouthed, "Anytime."

Tommy read his lips and understood.

--

Slice leaned his chin on his hand, balancing his right elbow on the edge of the computer console, and watched Snake Eyes and Arashikage meditate. He yawned, and then scratched a finger across his right temple.

Cobra Commander and Firefly had given him night duty to watch the unending feed from the game. But he was having a hard time staying awake with no action to watch. The two protagonists in the game were having trouble sleeping, and it was so boring.

He wanted something exciting to happen, but the Commander ordered him not to interfere with the game matrix or something unexpected might happen. But he was having a difficult time focusing on anything else than inserting them into a life-and-death scenario. "This is so boring, I need something to do," he said out loud, turning his chair around to look at Kamakura resting, still shackled to the wall. "What if I beat you up some more, that'll keep me going." But the ninja didn't answer. Though Slice didn't expect any answer to his rhetorical question.

He swiveled around in the chair and looked around the warehouse. Other than a dim overhead light and the glow of the screen, the entire place was dark. It was sort of spooky, but he had never been afraid of the dark. While most kids had night lights, he embraced the void. He liked it. There wasn't anything in the dark that wasn't in the light.

He decided he had had enough boredom and turned back to the computer console. As long as he didn't disturb the main program things wouldn't go wrong and the Commander and Firefly would be none the wiser. So he thought for a moment, and then interacted with the programming code and inserted his own brand of entertainment.

"This is gonna be so fun!" he said, giggling in an extremely excited manner. Then hit ENTER.

_**-- tbc**_


	15. End Game

_**BACK TO REALITY - CHAPTER 15**_

_**

* * *

**_

Tommy Arashikage's mind felt uneasy.

He sat in the Lotus position, the traditional sit of mediation, with his eyes closed. But sporadic images continuously haunted his thoughts, images of a suspicious nature that had him thinking that he belonged somewhere else. He couldn't explain the feeling. But something nagged fiercely in the back of his mind, and he seriously wondered if he was supposed to be here. _That's crazy, _he thought. _Of course, I am. This is my life._

He opened one eye and looked at his friend sitting next to him mediating. Snake Eyes, a nick name everyone called him because of his poker habits and the fact that he always lost, seemed to be having a better time at dwelling in mediation that Tommy was. Snake Eyes' looked peaceful.

Tommy, on the other hand, felt anxious. His heart began to beat feverishly, as if he had a darkly sixth sense of foreboding. He didn't know why he had this feeling, but it also felt natural in a way, as if his senses were attune of its acceptance - like an animal in the wild that was completely aware of its surroundings at all times.

Snake Eyes opened his eyes quickly and jumped to his feet. "Get up, something's coming!" he said, a stern look in his eyes as he looked at the door that lead into the mediation parlor. Tommy didn't know his friend had brought his DVB device with him.

Tommy got to his feet. "What's coming?" He eyed the door, and suddenly the door exploded inward. Tommy blocked his face from flying debris.

But it was merely a distraction as a hand burst through the floor and ripped the area around it apart, creating a hold large enough for whatever it was to come through. Johnny-5 emerged from the hole and crawled up through the wood floor. Tommy and Snake Eyes stepped back as it stood to its full 6'5" height.

The robotic guard at Extensive Enterprises had malfunctioned and was destroyed when Snake Eyes incapacitated it by knocking its head off. This version looked modified, and zombified, half of its metallic casing melted away.

It attacked, but Snake Eyes took hold of it and threw it crashing through the nearest wall. Not easily dissuaded by Snake Eyes heroics, it returned with equal forthright and attacked again.

It swiped through the air at Snake Eyes with a metal arm but missed as Snake Eyes moved away from its reach. He then swept its legs from underneath it and it came crashing down to the floor on its back.

"What the hell is going on here?" Tommy said.

Snake Eyes shook his head. "That's what I'd like to know. Dr. Mindbender has some explaining to do…or perhaps someone else is marinating the strings to this mechanical puppet."

Another robot emerged from the hole Johnny-5 came through, and it looked exactly like Johnny 5. "Dr. Mindbender only said there was the proto-type," Tommy said, as he jumped back from its reach, as it attempted to grab his leg.

Before the robot fully emerged from the hole, Tommy gave the robot's head a swift kick, and cocked it backwards. The robot fell back into the hole only to be replaced by a third and afterwards a fourth.

Snake Eyes came to Tommy's side. "These things are slow and the A.I. is responding like a human brain. Someone is controlling them. I took care of the first one. I ripped out its CPU from its chest plate."

"Dad!" came a voice from the doorway, Billy stood in the midst of the rubble. He gasped as he saw what was happening. "What's going on? It that Johnny-5?"

"Billy, go! Get Snake Eyes' family out of the house and call the police!" Tommy told him.

But Billy instead joined his father in the dojo. A third robot emerged from the hole and fixed its gaze on Billy. Its red slit sensor eye flashed as if scanning the room for more potential threats and lunged for Billy when it detected none.

Billy ducked and rolled across the floor past the robot as it came at him, jumping back to his feet next to his father. The three robots joined together in a fortified front. And the middle one's right arm quickly morphed into a plasma cannon.

Tommy grabbed Billy and smothered him on the floor as the robot fired. Snake Eyes hitting the hit seconds before the blast destroyed the wall behind him. The wall gave way and the entire room began to crumble down around them.

Tommy darted a look at the hole. "Billy, down the hole. I want you to get away from here!"

"But Dad, you'll be killed! I want to help!" Billy retorted.

"Don't argue with me. Your uncle and I can handle this. We've dealt with Johnny-5 before."

"Why is there more than one? I thought he was off-line? Uncle decapitated it back at your office when it malfunctioned and attacked you."

"I don't know. But I want you to go. Now!"

Another plasma blast came at them, and Tommy pushed Billy out of the way, and rolled the opposite way as the blast destroyed the floor where they once lain. Debris exploded, showering down around them.

Tommy covered his head, then turned back to his son. "Billy!"

"I'm okay Dad," Billy replied. Snake Eyes had used his body as a shield, smothering Billy as debris showered down. But that last blast caused the DVB device in Snake Eyes ear to fall out. And it had been destroyed.

"Snake Eyes, you okay?"

Snake Eyes gave Tommy a thumbs up. Tommy knew his friend would never be able to speak again. Tommy had forgotten how he created the unique device that allowed that miracle to happen after the car accident.

But perhaps that was the problem that he had suspiciously contemplated while he tried to mediate. If he indeed created such a device, how could he so easily forget how it worked and how he built it? Unless he didn't; it never felt right. It almost seemed he was playing the part of the CEO of a multi-billion corporation and a scientist.

He held his head as a painful migrate hit. A flood of images flashed through his mind - images, people, places and events from the artificial reality game he and Snake Eyes had created.

_It's all a lie…_

* * *

Cobra Commander pulled Slice's chair out from underneath him and the martial artist fell to the floor with a heavy thud. He protested, but when he saw his leader standing over him, his eyes behind his mesh mask opened wide with fear. Cobra Commander's eyes glared at him behind the glass plating of his helmet.

"Commander, I can explain…"

Cobra Commander gripped the shoulders of Slice's blood red uniform and hauled him to eye level, and to the commander, that was a few inches above the ground for the martial artist. "You idiot! Do you realize what you've done? You changed the parameters of the artificial environment."

Cobra Commander threw Slice aside and leaned over the computer console. He brought up the matrix of the program he designed for the A.I. environment and saw error message after message within the once close-knit lines of code in a separate box to the right of side of the screen. Slice's changes had corrupted his perfect SIM.

"I'm sorry, Cobra Commander, I can fix it," Slice tried to explain.

Cobra Commander turned sharply to the martial artist. "You're do nothing. Get him out of my sight! I have to fix this."

Firefly grabbed the martial artist by his shirt and dragged him to the wall where he chained Slice's wrists with shackles, next to an unconscious Kamakura. "Please, don't do this. I can help!" Slice pleaded.

"You've done enough already," Firefly warned him. "If I were you, I'd be saying your prayers."

Firefly returned to Cobra Commander's side as the commander was typing feverishly, attempting to erase what Slice had done, siphoning the bad code from the matrix of the A.I. environment. But when Cobra Commander slammed his fits on the keyboard, it was obvious his attempts were futile. "Damn that fool! He's ruined everything!"

"_Cobra Commander!" _Tommy Arashikage - Storm Shadow - said on screen. He was looking directly at him, as if he knew where the focus of the camera was inside the A.I. environment. _"You can't fool us any longer! We know!"_

And Cobra Commander growled in anger.

* * *

_**To be continued.**_


	16. The Game Continues

**BACK TO REALITY - ****CHAPTER 16**

* * *

Cobra Commander scowled furious behind his mask.

The leader of Cobra clenched his fists at his side as he glared at Storm Shadow on screen. The unmasked ninja appeared to be looking straight at him glaring into the camera lens that focused onto a set of hardened eyes.

After years of experience, Cobra Commander knew pissing off a ninja was one of the worse mistakes a man could make. Storm Shadow was a man of honor and if his honor was chipped away at, ninjas had a strict code of payback. When Zartan killed Storm Shadow's uncle - the Blind Master - the ninja spent years gathering intelligence to learn his uncle's murderer, servicing Cobra. But when it came to actually seeking revenge, Storm Shadow went soft.

But now, after years of brainwashing from the Brain Wave Scanner, no doubt Storm Shadow's mind was warped to an extent that he will not renege on revenge this time. "I was the one who initially sent you to kill Snake Eyes, Firefly," Cobra Commander said straightening. "But you failed to get the job done."

"Zartan accidentally killed the wrong man," he said in response. "You know my reasons for disengaging in the assassination and sending him. I need not have to repeat myself."

Cobra Commander turned to the explosive's expert, engaging Firefly's eyes behind his camouflage mask. Firefly's eyes were cold, and Cobra Commander saw no regret in them. Firefly was a psychopath. But he was also a man Cobra Commander could trust, to a certain extent. "Blame is irrelevant at this stage in the game. But ninjas, as you know, are a serious, troublesome lot. I will not have everything I've worked for here ruined by a man with the intelligence of a peacock!"

Slice.

Cobra Commander looked away from Firefly for a moment in thought, his mind was racing with a plan. His eyes narrowed in a sinister look.

"My original plan was to lull both ninja's into a false security of reality, then crush their spirits, destroying their minds," he said in contemplation. "But the game isn't over yet. Storm Shadow and Snake Eyes are still trapped within my new and improved Brain Wave Scanner. And I still have control."

"Then what's the plan?" demanded Firefly. "Fry their brains?"

"Overloading their neuron receptors with electronic impulses will kill them, but it will do it too quickly. I want them to suffer, as I have. I want Snake Eyes to die slowly for killing my brother in a car crash, and Storm Shadow for stealing my son and turning him against me."

"I don't care how them die. Let's just kill them already."

"Patience Firefly. This is my game. And I set the rules." Cobra Commander sinisterly chuckled. "The true game has yet to begin. I doesn't matter now if both Storm Shadow and Snake Eyes have regained their memories, it will make my revenge ever sweeter."

Cobra Commander picked up the chair he had thrown down and sat down at the computer console.

"The original perimeters may have been changed due to Slice's incompetence, but. . ." And his fingers began to dance across the keyboard in a speed that Firefly thought impressive. Cobra Commander reprogrammed the environment, turning its subtleness into a new world. "Now, let's see what our ninja friends will do. I will pull out both men's deepest, darkest fears and use them against them. Every man has a breaking point, even a ninja."

"I like how you think, Cobra Commander," Firefly said, with a small laugh.

"That's why I'm leader, and you're not."

* * *

**To be continued…**


	17. True Intentions

G I JOE - BACK TO REALITY - CH17

* * *

"It's time to finally put you both out of your misery!" Cobra Commander's fingers danced across the computer keyboard as he observed his enemies on the monitor screen in front of him.

And then the virtual nightmare for Storm Shadow and Snake Eyes began.

With the darkness that forever brood inside Cobra Commander's mind, the potential for his enemies demise was limitless. Whatever he thought, in this artificial world - it came true, utterly, horrifically true!

* * *

The room changed. The dojo shattered like mirror glass and became a demented world filled with only what belonged in a psychopathic mind, and Storm Shadow and Snake Eyes were thrown into this hostile world. The sky became blood red, the ground erupted into jagged, cracked rock, with the colour texture of volcano stone, and standing before them was Billy, wearing a SS Nazi uniform.

The teen looked at the duo with sinister disdain and hate, dwelled with programmed emotion. This was not the Billy either one of them knew. The true Billy was arrogant, and living in San Francisco. And he was a young man in his early twenties. But this was obviously the boy's father's attempt to reconstruct his son to what he wanted, envisioned, remembered, and what better way than to imply a persona of a World War 2 SS Nazi officer, the most hated people in history. Only Cobra Commander would think of that!

But it was also very symbolic. During WW2, kids were forced to serve the Third Reich, their childhoods ripped from them in war. And making Billy an SS officer, one of the highest in rank amongst the Third Reich, only went to prove Cobra Commander still held his son in high regard - his only son! A father never truly hated his child, even after his son betrayed, abandoned, and disowned him.

"Watch it, Snake Eyes...anything can happen here!" Storm Shadow warned his friend, and Snake Eyes, again mute, nodded in agreement.

Each began to circle around Billy. They were unarmed, but a ninja didn't need weaponry. The body was its own weapon, and with a sharp mind, there was no enemy that a ninja couldn't defeat!

But Billy didn't appear hostile, other than what he was wearing. He merely watched the two ninja as they surrounded him and looked back and forth from the other. Billy wore a gun belt to don with his light gray Nazi uniform, but nothing else.

The real Billy Storm Shadow knew didn't need a weapon. Despite blind in one eye and one artificial leg, Billy's ninja skills were masterful. He could hold his own without the need of external devices. Storm Shadow knew this because he had trained Billy himself to be a great warrior and a ken to his marital arts abilities. This Billy also was injured in either his left eye, or assumingly had an artificial right leg.

"Why do you hesitate, Cobra Commander?" Storm Shadow said. It was obvious his enemy was listening benevolently. "Why purpose does this image serve?"

Storm Shadow heard the Cobra leader chuckle like a god in the sky. "That I can do whatever I please, Thomas Arashikage," Cobra Commander said. "Turning your student, my son, into one of the most hated people in history...the irony is uncanny, don't you think?"

"The doesn't frighten us. We know this world isn't real. And what isn't real can't harm us."

"Oh, but you're wrong about that! I turned the safety off. You're just as vulnerable in that world than in the real world. You can bleed, and die! And you're utterly at my mercy. You can't escape!"

"There's always an escape to every predicament, Cobra Commander," Storm Shadow said. "Bring it on!"

* * *

"Indeed." Firefly mused as he stood behind Cobra Commander at the computer console. "Are you going to kill them, or just parade your son in pompous drab?"

"Watch your mouth!" Cobra Commander spat back. "My immediate intentions are mere formality, a fear factor, if you will. I have them right where I want them. I can take all the time I need."

"I'd just kill them and get it over with. No theatrics, no melodrama, no savoring the kill - just cold-blooded murder!"

"I'm much more civilized than that."

Firefly chuckled softly.

Cobra Commander swiveled in his chair to face Firefly. Firefly swallowed. The Commander's eyes narrowed with disdain and coldness as he looked at Firefly. He blue eyes looked like two tiny ice picks. "Care to share the joke? You believe me to be a sadistic psychopath?"

"Not at all," he lied. "I just believe in getting immediate results."

"Ha!" Cobra Commander turned back. "Like when I paid you a ton of cash to murder Snake Eyes in Japan when he was living with the Arashikage Clan? I had to hire Zartan because you couldn't get the job done. And now, several years later I'm about to finish the contract I put on Snake Eyes life with finality. The old axiom is true: If you want something done right, do it yourself."

"Let me redeem myself, Commander. Let me go into the program and kill them. Free of charge."

"Ha! Nothing with you is free! But, if you do manage to kill them, I'll give you a sizable bonus."

Firefly grinned beneath his mask. Then went to the BWS and attached electros to each of his temples, slipped on a VR visor, and entered the VR world created by Cobra Commander.

* * *

"You're such a fool, Firefly. Now I can kill you too for your miserable failure!" Cobra Commander's fingers moved over the keyboard. "I'll kill all my enemies in one final swoop!"

"But Commander, Firefly is our ally!" Slice said. Still chained to the wall, he struggled slightly to free himself but to no avail.

"A man of my stature and position has no allies, I live for myself, my goals, and nothing else!" Cobra Commander continued to add new parameters into the matrix of his VR world with the insertion of yet another player. Firefly would not be easily swayed by the horrors this world could summon, so Cobra Commander would have to use his imagination. And he had plenty of that. Only he called it "vision"!

* * *

to be continued...


	18. Cobra Commander

_**G I JOE - BACK TO REALITY - CH18**_

* * *

Serpentor, Cobra's supreme leader, snarled at the latest news delivered to him by a messenger. Cobra has invaded Washington DC, but it had not gone well.

It had come to his attention someone had sabotaged his entire campaign from the beginning, and now his men were retreating, using the Anacostia River, that snaked through Washington, to ferry themselves into open waters, and back to Cobra Island into the Atlantic Ocean in utter disgrace.

And he could only think of one individual who dared defy him. A man who had never accepted his superiority!

Serpentor was cloned with the genetic markers and traits from dozens of past leaders from all around the world. From Julius Caesar, the first pre-Emperor of Rome; to the Mongolian warrior and conqueror, Genghis Khan; to the Chinese strategist Sun Tzu, and to other remarked and noteworthy leaders. With this, he became the ultimate warrior, strategist, and thinker. But when the final preparations were being done, he learned afterwards, something has gone wrong and an essential piece of DNA had failed to blend within his own DNA, and lacked subtly and patience. And the man in question that continuously defied his authority sought to forever mock this failing, professing Cobra deserved a leader with an overall suitability for leadership. And the man questioned Serpentor at every turn, even speaking outwardly about Serpentor's ineptness.

But Serpentor didn't care. He was born a leader, figuratively and literately, and regardless of his character traits, genetically predisposed, his or another's, he demanded to be revered, feared, and his orders to be followed without question!

"For this I command!" Were his words to drive his orders into his troops with boom and godliness.

Serpentor stood gallantry on the front deck of a Hydrofoil speeding forward towards its destination beyond the edge of the Anacostia River's waterway edge to the Atlantic Ocean. His personal flyer destroyed by his enemies, his uniform caked with black soot and grim from batting collective G I Joe forces unified with US forces, his cape also ripped after needing to fight hand-to-hand, he didn't want to talk to anyone, wanting to be alone; to think.

Serpentor hated failure. But it wasn't he who had failed, it was his men...and someone was going to pay. Yes, punishment will be dished out in numbers for this disaster.

His strategists had planned for everything: theories, enemy movements, reasonability's, but no one could have planned for betrayal. Which they should've planned for, he thought in retrospect. That's what he paid them for! But his strategists weren't psychics, so their punishment wouldn't be as severe as some other people Serpentor had in mind, he decided.

But that would have to wait.

A messenger came to stand by Serpentor's side. He wore a simple blue trooper uniform. "Sorry to intrude, my lord, but there is a video call for you. It's Major Bludd." He handed Serpentor a hand held device with a tiny monitor and a speaker.

Serpentor snatched it out of the trooper's hand and pushed the small man back. In size, Serpentor was twice muscular and a foot taller than the man. He didn't thank the man. The Major's face was on the handheld device screen. "Major Bludd, explain to me this mess?"

"I don't have an answer, my lord, other than the belief that someone betrayed us," Bludd replied. Serpentor agreed. "This person gave away our entire strategy, troop movements, and locations. I don't know who. Those who have managed to escape are fleeing back to Cobra Island. I'm sorry for this failure, although it's not my fault."

Serpentor narrowed his eyes, then threw the device into the river, not wanting excuses.

Yet this person who cost him everything will be sorry for this failure. Yes, very sorry indeed.

He looked back at the same trooper he shoved a minute earlier. The man hadn't left. "Get me Cobra Commander, now!"

"Yes, sir!" The trooper turned, but then stopped suddenly. He turned back, as if recalling something. "Cobra Commander is missing, my lord. He disappeared in the midst of the battle. Efforts to find him have failed."

"Then find him! Now!"

"Yes, my lord, Serpentor!"

"On second thought..." Serpentor pulled out a pistol from a holster on his hip. "I can't stand incompetence!" And shot and killed the man, blasting a hole in his chest. The man dropped like a stone to the deck plating. He thought this simple kill would make him feel better, but it only added to the emptiness he felt when murdering another human being.

Another trooper witnessed the murder, stood shocked. Serpentor replaced the pistol in its holster. "Get rid of that garbage! And find Cobra Commander for me! Now!"

The trooper gave a sharp salute, dumped the dead trooper overboard, and then commenced with the task his leader gave him, and entered the hold.

Serpentor turned around to muse, as the Hydrofoil raced/glided out of the Anacostia River waterway and out into the open ocean. And as his troops made their escape, several craft following in his wake, it was then he received good news.

Cobra Commander had been located. A secret locator Serpentor had hidden on the man, somewhere in his armor suit had finally started to function despite numerous attempts to find it. The signal must have been masked somehow, but now rang true loudly on a personal locator beacon. He had decided to plant one on Cobra Commander much like an owner leashed a dog.

The only problem was, despite knowing his precise location, the beacon indicated Cobra Commander was deep inside Washington DC. And Cobra forces were going in the opposite direction.

The Cobra leader swore. Serpentor wanted Cobra Commander. He wanted to strangle the man with his bare hands, to make his eye pop out of their sockets, to see blood gust out of every orifice of the man's blood. But it would have to wait.

And Serpentor hated to do wait.

* * *

Kamakura could only watch as his comrades, Storm Shadow and Snake Eyes, were subjected to the horrors of Cobra Commander's VR world, and now they were at the whim of yet another psychopath inside this world, Firefly. And with the safeties off, there was no telling what Firefly would do to them.

With his wrists chained to the wall, Kamakura felt helpless. All his training and martial arts, and he couldn't even help his friends in their greatest time of need. He struggled, pulled, yanked intensely at his bindings, but to no avail.

"No use, my friend," Slice said. "We're obviously slated to be killed after Cobra Commander has his way with your friends and Firefly. It's hopeless."

Kamakura turned to look at the red clad ninja who was chained next to him, and saw the depression that ravaged him, painfully so expressed by his slacking body language. Slice's head slumped down to his chest; his mask hid his expressions but it wasn't hard to see the man's anguish. He had already given up.

"You're pathetic, you know," Kamakura said. "And you call yourself a ninja? Cobra Commander's son has more backbone than you, and he's a cripple!"

"We can't escape these chains," Slice said. "What hope do we have?"

"There's always a way out! Weren't you listening to Storm Shadow? A ninja must be smarter than his opponent!"

"Cobra Commander's a pretty smart guy. A lot people don't give him enough credit."

"People like Cobra Commander only seem more intelligent to idiots like you!"

"Then do you have a plan of escape?" asked Slice, with a hint of eagerness. "I'd very much like to survive today."

"You and me both," agreed Kamakura. "I have a small knife hidden inside my right boot. If I lift my legs up, do you think you can reach in and grab it?"

"I'll try," Slice said. It was then Kamakura grabbed both chains attached to his wrist cuffs and lifted his entire body upwards so his feet reached his head, then swiveled them to Slice's hands. Slice reached into Kamakura's right boot and slipped out a tiny knife. Kamakura relaxed. "Now what?" Slice asked.

"Try to unlock one of my cuffs," said Kamakura.

Slice attempted the procedure, reaching over and sticking the tiny blade into the hole of the nearest cuff, wiggling it. At first it didn't work, then he heard a click.

"Got it!"

* * *

Cobra Commander had given Firefly full control inside the BWS virtual reality world and Firefly intended to use it to his every advantage, including killing the two men standing before him.

Firefly had replaced the image of Billy. Wearing his gray camouflage gear and armed to the teeth with guns, grenades, knifes, and every other assortment of gear and weaponry, and anything else his sordid imagination could summon; he was ready for murderous intent. And there was nothing that could stop him.

He plucked off a grenade and pulled the pin, ready to throw... "Time to die!" Then threw it, sending it soaring through the air towards the two ninja.

It landed, bounced, both ninja jumped out of its blast radius, and...

No explosion happened after a set time when such a blast should have occurred. When a grenade pin is pulled, there is a three second countdown before detonation, whereas the explosive and gunpowder mix to create a volatile mixture.

"What?" Firefly said. "No boom?"

Both his victims looked back at the dud grenade. "Well, aren't we lucky!" Storm Shadow said.

"You won't be so lucky now!" Firefly plucked three grenades off his chest holster, pulled the pins, and threw them. They flew through the air, landed, and again, nothing. They were duds too.

Firefly swore. He pulled out a pistol, but the energy gauge read empty. And so did a rifle he imagined into existence, and other energy related weapons.

"I don't believe this!" Firefly cursed. Other weapons of choice like swords and knifes, their blades fell limp in his grip. "Commander! What the hell is happening here?" He shouted into the sky. "All my weapons are -"

"I'm afraid your services are no longer needed, Firefly. And this is the price of failure!" Cobra Commander spoke godly to him. "You failed to kill Snake Eyes, you've continuously failed any number of tasks given to you. Now this is your punishment. You'll die with them!"

Firefly screamed in aghast horror at the betrayal, and swore at his ex-employer.

* * *

To be continued…


	19. The Final Battle Begins

**G I JOE - BACK TO REALITY - CH19**

* * *

In the real world, Snake Eyes wore a mask that hide his real identity. But here in this artificial world, his face was bare for all who were watching to see. It wasn't scarred as most people would think. In fact, it had a baby-face quality that most people would adore. Movie star looks, some might say. And with his thick blonde hair and baby blue eyes and muscular body, he had it all in the looks department.

But not all was what it seemed. Mentally, Snake Eyes was a very scarred individual. And apart from an injury to his larynx that prevented him from speaking, an accident that he endured in military service, you'd never think a little swearing would cause him pain…

Snake Eyes had never heard someone swear horridly the way Firefly was right now. The nastiest language ever to come out of another human's mouth was spewing from Firefly directed at Cobra Commander, who had just recently betrayed him, to be trapped in the Brainwave Scanner's new VR world Cobra Commander had created to wreck revenge on Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow.

Snake Eyes clasped his hands over his ears. Storm Shadow did the same thing, nodding. Storm Shadow mouthed, "What a potty-mouth!" And Snake Eyes nodded in agreement.

"And what are you two doing?" Firefly directed his attention to them. The man's eyes narrowed with distain and contempt.

Storm Shadow lowered his hands after Snake Eyes did ,and said, "And where did you learn that kind of language?"

"Are you two children? Grow up! You'd swear too if you'd just been betrayed by a man you believed in," explained Shadow put his hand on his hips in mock disbelief. "He betrayed me too, remember? And so did you, matter-of-factly. So you'll get no sympathy from either of us."

Snake Eyes momentarily looked up. The sky swirled with wisps of white clouds across a molten red sky, as if thought patterns or bits of code were circulating for a change.

Snake Eyes could only attest to it be metaphoric to the mind of Cobra Commander. The entire atmosphere smacked of a man who desperately was in need to visit an insane asylum and be put on psycho-drugs.

"What's the bastard waiting for?" Firefly protested. "If he's going to kill us, why doesn't he get it over with?""I for one welcome the wait," Storm Shadow said calmly. He sat down in a lotus position. "It'll give us time to formulate a plan of escape."Snake Eyes agreed. But he did not sit down like his friend. He preferred to stand. The place where they were was almost vacant except for the picturesque sky and ground. He was no psyche-major, but in studying this, it might give him some insight into Cobra Commander's personality.

The rivalry between them was a personal one and one might even say coincidental as worldly events might go. Snake Eyes parents were on their way to the airport to pick him up after returning from active duty, injured. But on there way, his father, mother and sister, were involved in a head-on collision with a drunk driver, who just happen to be Cobra Commander's brother. All four were killed in the horrible accident.

But while Snake Eyes didn't hold a grudge. Cobra Commander did. And vowed to kill Snake Eyes for the death of his brother. It was an accident Snake Eyes was not even apart of it. He was merely labeled guilty by association because the crash involved his family.

Both Snake Eyes and Cobra Commander had clashed numerous times throughout the years, each time ending in a draw. Cobra Commander always had a scheme to kill Snake Eyes, while Snake Eyes always seemed to foil it. Now it seemed Cobra Commander was finally going to have the last laugh.

Snake Eyes was trapped in a VR world where anything could manifest itself and hurt him, and Cobra Commander was in complete control of it. And there was nothing Snake Eyes could do to stop the mad man!

And now Cobra Commander had just shown what kind of man he truly was by betraying one of his top generals for failing to kill Snake Eyes years earlier. An assassination that ended with the mercenary Zartan murdering the Blind Master inside the Arashikage Clan compound in Japan, where Snake Eyes was training under the tutelage of both Storm Shadow and his Uncle, the Blind Master. The training was a kindness extended to Snake Eyes by Storm Shadow after Snake Eyes entire family was killed. Storm Shadow even made Snake Eyes an extension of his Arashikage family. But that kindness ended up costing Storm Shadow everything.

The Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. It had all started with Cobra Commander… Now it appeared, it was finally going to come to pass with Cobra Commander as the all-in-all victor.

Storm Shadow, who had joined G I Joe on/off again, sat with his eyes closed in mediation. Cobra Commander had used the Brainwave Scanner on him countless times, and Snake Eyes knew how psychologically damaging the machine could be. Storm Shadow, or Thomas Arashikage, was a severely psychologically scarred man. But to Snake Eyes surprise, Storm Shadow was also a man who had great mental strength that even Snake Eyes was envious of. A power Snake Eyes knew he could never match despite all his martial arts skill and mental discipline over the years.

Over the years, Snake Eyes had clashed with Storm Shadow. But when everything was said and done, their history was strong; their friendship was even stronger; drawing all the way back to when they served in the military together. Some bonds, some people - _blood brothers _- could never be separated, even by other people or snorted a protest. "Escape? How? There's no way to get out of this blasted world Cobra Commander has created other than disconnecting us from the Brainwave Scanner and that can only be done from the outside!""Kamakura will do it!" Storm Shadow replied, his eyes still closed. "I'm attempting to send him a mental message. I feel a change in our fortune coming soon. All we can do is wait.""And how the hell can you send him a mental message? You're not psychic, no matter how much martial arts you know? I know true psychics; Cobra Commander's even employed some. You ninja are - "

Snake Eyes put a finger to his mouth, hushing Firefly. Firefly was about to protest, but Snake Eyes put up a finger of warning to the man. And Firefly took it to Shadow smiled. "There…Kamakura is free!"

"What? What do you mean?" asked Firefly. "How could you possibly know that?"

Storm Shadow opened his eyes. "We ninja have a sacred connection with each other that other people could only dream of," he said. "I trained Kamakura for a time, as did Snake Eyes, as did Jinx, my sister. Kamakura may be lacking in a few disciplines, but I truth him, as does Snake Eyes."

Firefly crossed his arms across his chest and snorted.

* * *

To be continued…


	20. Best Laid Plans Foiled

**G I JOE - BACK TO REALITY - CH20**

* * *

Cobra Commander was about to accomplish a life long goal.

With his completion of the final preparations for what he called the "Annihilation Program", where he would let his Brainwave Scanner kill his greatest enemies and foes inside his created VR world by unleashing untold horrors - with a push of a button, he would will the war!

He had spent years perfecting this scheme and countless hours programming the software and building the hardware of his new BWS, the compact/carry-on version.

And now his plan was at fruition. No regrets; all he had to do was push ENTER and all his problems with Snakes Eyes, Storm Shadow and Firefly would disappear.

"I'll miss the chase, Snake Eyes," he said to the images on the screen, "but there'll always be other challenges, other enemies to kill. Our long standing rivalry is now at an end!"

And with his finger over the key, he pressed down...

Only to jerk his hand back at the last second to avoid the sharp end of a small knife that, thrown, embedded itself between the spaces between the keys of his computer console, stopping the ENTER key from being depressed.

And moments later, the console shorted out and exploded.

Cobra Commander put his arms in front of him to shade himself from debris.

"Nooo!" Cobra Commander turned around quickly. Kamakura and Slice were free from their chains. "How the hell did you two get free?"

"A magician never reveals his secrets," Kamakura replied sarcastically.

Cobra Commander then saw the ninja that had been under control of his BWS start to regain consciousness, reviving on the medical beds. Storm Shadow, Snakes Eyes, even Firefly were all free, and taking off their visors.

"You ruined everything, you insufferable..."

Cobra Commander pulled a pistol from his side holster and fired several shots that went wide as Kamakura avoided them easily.

"Kill him, Slice! Now! You've been reinstated to Cobra! I want them all dead!"

"All of them? Even Firefly?" Slice gazed around at everyone, looking at Firefly.

Cobra Commander narrowed his eyes with contempt, angry that his orders had been questioned. Of course, Firefly, he thought.

But before any action could be taken, the far wall exploded inward and hordes of Cobra troops marched in, weapons drawn.

Cobra Commander laughed. "It appears, gentlemen, that luck does favor the prepared. What my Brainwave Scanner has failed to do, they will do for me! Kill them all!" Cobra Commander ordered.

"Belay that order!" a dominating voice sounded. And Serpentor stepped through the hole of the blasted out wall, regaled in his serpentine uniform and crown.

Cobra Commander hissed detestfully. The latest news was Serpentor had retreated from Washington. G I Joe and unified U S forces had beaten them back, with of course some anonymously planted information about their movements Cobra Commander had sent via a spy he had in the U S military echelon.

So what in Snake Hell was Serpentor doing here?

Cobra troops surrounded the others; the ninja: Storm Shadow and Snake Eyes, wouldn't dare move unarmed and with so many weapons pointed at them. Or would Firefly.

Serpentor must have sensed his displeasure and said, "Surprised to see me, Cobra Commander?"

Major Bludd came to stand at Serpentor's side. His non-artificial arm held in a brace, obviously injured in battle. And Serpentor didn't fair better. Although no apparent physical injury, his yellow, serpentine uniform was soiled with patches of black dirt, burnt; his cape shredded in several spots.

"My guess would be a homing beacon you planted on me somewhere, right?" Cobra Commander answered. "You came back for me, how touching."

He smiled under his helmet when Serpentor frowned, obviously displeased of the correct guesswork and the sarcastic remark.

"I'm not one of your stupid lackey's," Cobra Commander continued, "and I anticipated something like this would happen."

Serpentor looked intrigued and crossed his arms across his chest. "Indeed, Cobra Commander," he said. "So, tell me, do you also have an escape plan? My men have you and your guests surrounded."

He gave a glance to Kamakura, then back to Serpentor. "All good magicians do..." And despite a damaged computer console, Cobra Commander pressed a button on the side, which had a back-up power supply, and the room began to fill with an invisible gas, silently hissing from the vents.

Cobra Commander was safe, everyone else was not. His suit had a build in air circulation and filtration system.

Cobra Troopers began to drop like stones, and then Serpentor realized the danger and covered his mouth and nose with a hand. "Gas!" he shouted. "Everyone outside!"

All who could climbed back out the blasted wall. Cobra Commander took an alternative exit, an escape route he had just in case.

And as he did, he cursed Snake Eyes for escaping his grasp once again.

"You will be mine to kill one day, Snake Eyes..." he said, as he climbed into a small flight craft he had stashed away in the outside alleyway next to the warehouse. "A successful man never fails, he only learns ways that don't work and adapts."

The craft lifted off, extended its wings, and blasted into the sky.

* * *

Serpentor joined the others that escaped the poisonous gas, coughed a couple of times, and looked around.

His prisoners had fled during the commotion. Storm Shadow, Snake Eyes, Firefly and Slice.

Firefly and Slice were Cobra agents, but they most likely fled out of instinct, not wanting to feel the wrath of their supreme leader for aligning with Cobra Commander. But they'd repent, he knew, and fall back into line with Serpentor, or die.

As for Cobra Commander...

Serpentor vowed if he ever got his hands on the man, death would be the lease of Cobra Commander's worries.

But he would send Wraith out; he was the ultimate bounty hunter. With his invincibility armour, the man was unstoppable!

Not even Cobra Commander would be able to hide from him!

But that would wait for later.

* * *

In a secluded area away from all activity, Storm Shadow and Snake Eyes clasped hands in a good-bye.

"We will always be blood brothers, my friend, even if we are on opposite sides, poised towards our own agendas," Storm Shadow said.

Snake Eyes nodded.

"But it was nice to hear your voice one last time...despite it being a facsimile in some computer world, it missed it. I hope you will be able to forgive me for all the atrocities I have done throughout the years, even to you? I've sinned so very much."

Snake Eyes smiled. "Good bye," he then mouthed.

Putting their masks back on, they both went their separate ways.

But after a few steps, Storm Shadow halted, turned, and watched his friend flee into an adjacent alley. Then he saw something on the ground, dropped.

Storm Shadow retrieved it. It was a folded piece of paper. On it was a written phrase. "He who forgives oneself, has a friend for life!"

Storm Shadow, aka Tommy Arashikage, smiled under his mask. "You speak volumes without saying a word, my friend. You are truly a wiser man than I am."

Storm Shadow then turned and fled in the opposite direction.

* * *

END

(Thanks to everyone who has stuck with the story and enjoyed it. R&R.)


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